Rings of Change
by Lieano2
Summary: Acceptence is the only cure. BulbaXSquirt
1. Prolouge

A/N: I'm usually huge on these Authors Notes, but since this is a rather old fic and it didn't previously have them, I'm not going to go through and add them. ^^; I hope you enjoy, though! Hopefully this fic helps to expand the fandom of BulbaSquirt/Teamshipping. It's fun in here and I'm lonely! ;^;

--

The atmosphere was quiet and Squirtle was unsettled by it. Of course, he knew why it was quiet. First of all, the only members of the large group traveling the dirt road were Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Ash and he. And even though the human was usually his own personal sound system, Ash seemed oddly anxious that day.

"What's eaten him?" he questioned the other pokemon.

"It's Valentines Day," Bulbasaur said. "Weren't you paying attention back at the cabin?"

Squirtle frowned and turned to Pikachu who was bound to be much kinder. "Is it really?"

Pikachu smiled, but there was something in it that made Squirtle feel weird. Something soft and intelligent. "Yeah. He's just freaking out about what to get Misty."

"Misty?" Squirtle scoffed a little. "I thought they hated each other!"

"Sometime things are a little more than what they seem on the outside," Pikachu said in a sagely voice. Squirtle got a shiver down in his shell and a strange notion that the electric mouse wasn't talking about Ash and Misty anymore.

They finally came to a definite stop right outside a little, cute, pink shop. The pokemon all looked up at their trainer, awaiting orders. Ash just gritted his teeth and glared at the shop. "I feel weird," he said in a crusted voice. "But Brock won't let me back into the cabin unless I do this so…" He looked down at his pals, summoning all of the fighting spirit he could muster. "I'm counting on you guys! Let's do this!"

"Pika!"

"Bulba!"

"Squirtle Squirt!"

All at once, as if it were a race, the four comrades rushed into the stop like the wild boys they were. The poor shopkeeper nearly leapt out of his trousers. They all split up. Squirtle found himself trapped between rows and rows of sparkling jewelry bound to make any girl squeal. He looked up and down, not really sure where the redheaded trainer's preferences lay. Then all the sudden he heard his name from above and looked up just in time to catch a falling object. He examined it closely. "Fake Wedding Rings?" His deep brown eyes scanned the shelf for the culprit of his find. On the very top sat Pikachu, looking very proud of himself.

"I don't think Ash will like these very much if he has to wear one too," the turtle called up.

"They're not for Ash," Pikachu replied calmly.

"Then…" Squirtle felt cheated and confused. "Then what are they for?"

Pikachu said nothing. He had hoped the turtle would get it on his own, but now that he thought about it, Squirtle wasn't the quickest pokemon he knew. Not to mention his subconscious rejection of the idea, the mouse saw no hope in his plans unless he gave his friend a push in the right direction. He nodded down the aisle and Squirtle took his hint, just catching a glimpse of Bulbasaur's green end turn down a corner.

"Bulbasaur?! That jerk?! No way!"

Pikachu grinned. Just the fact that Squirtle understood meant that he had at least the beginnings of the idea in his head.

"What's that smile?!" Squirtle demanded as he quickly shoved the rings back into a random place on the shelf as if they carried a disease. "I thought you were smart," he snapped before storming off.

Pikachu sighed "It's hard being a matchmaker sometimes," he moaned to himself before hopping of the shelf to go find Ash.

***

Standing outside in the evening glow, Ash held the bouquet of white water lillies at arms length ahead of him, surveying them with a frown. "Are we sure? I mean, I don't care what Misty thinks, but if it's not 'romantic' enough, Brock won't let me in the room-"

"Pi," Pikachu signed for the 10th time.

"Well, alright then, where will she put them? I mean, we're leaving in the morning."

"Pipikachu! Pika pika!"

"Well you don't have to push!"

They started walking and as time wore on, Squirtle became more and more aware of a small crunching sound – like a plastic bag being disturbed. He looked left and right, then slowly over his shoulder to Bulbasaur, trotting behind him. Sure enough, a tiny plastic bag dangled from the bulb on the green pokemon's back. "What's that?" Squirtle snapped.

"A present," Bulbasaur replied nonchalantly.

It was all Squirtle could do not to gap. "For who?"

"None of your business," Bulbasaur said, sticking his tongue out.

"Seriously!" the turtle pestered. "Who is it? Horsea?"

"No."

"Vulpix? I _know_ you have this thing for Vulpix."

"No I don't."

"Ew! Don't tell me it's for _Misty_!"

"No! God! I'm not that big of a freak!"

Squirtle paused before saying, "But you admit you're a freak." He got a fiery red glare in return for that remark. "Anyway, you gotta tell me! Come on, did you pick up a wild gal in the forest?"

"No and why do you care?"

"Because we're buddies, right?" Silence. "Oh, come on! We may fight all the time, but we're still both a part of the same team. That makes us friends at least to some degree, right?"

"Friends?" Bulbasaur's voice was coarse. More so than usual at least. "You honest to God think of me as a friend?"

Squirtle stopped to gap at the green pokemon, making Bulbasaur stop too. "Why are you so shocked?"

Bulbasaur looked at him for a moment, showing no emotion. Then he smirked and jogged to catch up with Ash and Pikachu. Squirtle waddled after him in utter confusion.

***

Incase you are concerned, Ash's present was deemed acceptable and he was allowed to sleep in his bed that night. Misty was bashfully happy to receive it, but covered it up by commenting on how a _bike_ would have been a much better gift.

***

Squirtle awoke the next morning with a small lump under his pillow that wasn't there when he fell asleep the previous night. Though he was certain he hadn't lost a tooth the night before, he still groggily opened his mouth to check. When he was sure all of his choppers were in place, he slowly reached under his pillow, caution making his finger tips tingle. But nothing lunged out to bite him, so he quickly wrapped his pointy blue paw around the lump-maker and withdrew it into the light.

It was a piece of chocolate.

What's more, the tag had a crudely drawn version of _Bulbasaur_ on it.

Squirtle's jaw fell open and he leapt to his feet, eager to seek advice. Before he knew it, he had fallen down at a pair of yellow feet, panting mostly with shock rather than fatigue.

Pikachu blinked in surprise. "Good morning?"

Squirtle pushed himself up and shoved the chocolate's tag into the poor pokemon's face. "Explain!"

Pikachu blinked again, then processed the image and couldn't help but smile softly. Bulbasaur was more intuitive than he had thought. "Well, I guess you have to return the favor."

"I do?! With what?!"

Pikachu shrugged. "But you better hurry. We're leaving in a minute." He nodded over to Ash who was recalling all of his buddies into their miniature round traveling cases. Squirtle watched Charmander disappear into his pokeball in a flash of red light and horror spread across his face. Next, Ash turned to him, holding out his own little home at him.

"Alright buddy, let's go," the trainer said with a friendly smile.

"Squirt!" the turtle cried, suddenly panicking and taking off in the opposite direction, back into the wilderness. Everyone fell into a state of shock.

"Squirtle!" Ash called out, a deep sense of hurt in his voice.

"Idiot!" Bulbasaur hissed, running after him.

Squirtle got good ground in the time that everyone was frozen in their confusion. He lost his search party easily in the small patch of wood between the cottage they had used the night before, and the store that he had visited the previous day. By the time Bulbasaur got to the shop, before anyone else, Squirtle was already standing out in the front, a small, mysterious parcel in his fidgeting paws.

"What the heck?! What's gotten into you?" Bulbasaur asked just as everyone else caught up. Ash tried to run to Squirtle's side, but Pikachu held him back, silently ordering him and the rest of audience to be quiet and still.

"Sorry," Squirtle murmured, holding out his package. "Um… Thanks for being a good friend… And the chocolate…"

Bulbasaur looked at the strange object for a moment before reaching for it with his vines. He quickly unwrapped it to find two rings. They were not the same ones that Pikachu had tried to get him to buy the day before, but they were about as close as Squirtle's pride would let them get. They were almost identical silver bands, but one said "Best" and the other said "Friends".

"I get the 'Best'!" Squirtle quickly assured. "Because that's what I am, the best." He grinned a toothy one and Bulbasaur couldn't help but laugh.

"Whatever," he chuckled, handing the ring over to his friend. "Happy February 15th."

"You too," the turtle replied, putting his stubby arm around his friend's plant bulb as they headed back to regroup with their confused trainer.


	2. Chapter 1

Oddly enough, Bulbasaur had never been anything but a Bulbasaur his entire life. The thought of being an entirely different species all together had never even crossed his mind. (Except for in a strange dream once that he'd never shared with anyone. Least of all his old buddy Squirtle.) Yet, staring across the field at his opponent made him start to wonder what the life of a toad was like.

To sum the trainer up in one word, Bulbasaur would have be blunt and call her creepy. She was like a modern day witch. In fact, from her side of the story, she wasn't just _like_ one, she_ was _one. Her hair was long and greasy, probably because she lived in the woods and refused to enter the town, living off of battles that she won against passing trainers. (She had bet Ash $100 she could win. Of course, Ash didn't even have that kind of money, but he wasn't exactly the type to turn down a challenge.) Her outfit was entirely black with a little sparks of deep blood red, or a depressing violet color every now and then. And, even though it was the dead of summer, they consisted of a heavy sweater reaching for her ankles, a long skirt that trailed behind her, and a huge, bulky cloak that sat on her shoulders and concealed her arms. And, just for the heck of it, she of course wore a giant witches hat. If he could talk to humans, the question of how she got such a dreadful hat would be the first thing Bulbasaur asked her. Her eyes were narrow and he prayed to the Gods she was wearing colored contacts, otherwise her unnaturally blood colored eyes were too eerie for him. Her mouth was long and straight, stretched out from frowning too much, and her skin was paler than the night, seeing as she spent most of her life under the shade of a dense forest, or in creepy caves under resting zubat. Finally, to complete the ensemble, she had a scepter. Of course she had a scepter. And that Bulbasaur was much better off _not_ knowing the origins of.

"A bulbasaur?" the witch asked in a monotone voice. "How interesting." Then without a word she reached into the folds of her cloak and withdrew a scratched up red pokeball. It looked worn - like it had been beaten up at one time, scratched upon with sharp nails or a dull knife. But the most peculiar thing was the giant star drawn on the very top of the redder half. She barely even tossed it. It was more like a roll onto the ground. It stopped a few feet in front of Bulbasaur and just sat there for a moment. The pokemon and his trainer both blinked.

"Bulb-"

"Ah~~~Brah~~~" Bulbasaur nearly jumped out of his feet. He had been so intent on watching the weird pokeball sit still, he hadn't even noticed the pokemon within being released until the teleportation creature was at his side, hand pulled back and ready to strike. Luckily, the abra had just woken up from its nap and it was being rather slow so Bulbasaur was able to dodge it quickly. Unfortunately, he tripped over the abandoned pokeball and did a face plant into the dirt.

"Abra," the creepy witch started. "It's time."

Abra nodded, clearly understanding the command. It lifted its two round hands and started to move them back and forth in a chilling manner. Ash saw this and decided it meant no good. "Bulbasaur!" he shouted. "Get up and attack Abra with Razor Leaf before he can do anything!"

Bulbasaur obeyed, but by the time he had managed to face his opponent, Abra was already done with whatever magical spell he was chanting and Bulbasaur was knocked off his feet by a beam no other pokemon had ever preformed.

It was strange. Bulbasaur didn't feel any weaker when he came out of it, all of his hitpoints were still in tact, he was sure of it. But while he was floating through the air time seemed to slow down and stop, a tingling sensation freezing and immobilizing him for a split second. Something not familiar to his body was running through his veins, pulsing through his heart. He was worried at first that Abra had damaged something a little more serious than hitpoints, but it was gone in a flash as he crumbled back to the earth below. He rolled over, using his bulb as a ramp to get onto his feet and face Abra with a snarl. "Bulba!" he cried before unleashing a vine whip on Ash's quick orders. He wrapped the long vines around Abra's body and lifted him into the air, but the pokemon merely teleported out of his grasp. The battle raged on as Bulbasaur continued to try and catch the elusive psychic pokemon to no avail. Finally, he caught Abra behind him and a good tackle sent what was eventually discovered to be a fairly weak pokemon down to the ground, KO'd.

Ash won a measly 10 cents, but asked the witch, Victoria, if she would join them for dinner anyway.

***

Bulbasaur watched the moon sit in the sky like a giant useless nightlight. He willed it to move, do a trick, anything, but no. It just sat there, glaring down upon his lonesome like it was trying to put him on spotlight before the world.

There was a party going on down at camp, he knew that much. There was lots of food, singing and witchcraft on their guest's part. And even though Bulbasaur had been invited, all he really wanted a breath of fresh air in peace. Still, he was lonely. And he knew why. He had tried to escape 'parties' like these before, but up until a few days ago he had never fully succeeded. There had always been that one person that would call him grumpy and pull him back to the others or, on the rare occasion, not even try and just watch the stars with Bulbasaur in comfortable silence.

_"Be careful,"_ was the last thing Bulbasaur had told Squirtle before the water pokemon had joined back up with his old gang to fight fires. Now all it did was serve as a reminder to him that his old friend actually had something to be careful about. Despite being a water type, Squirtle was not invincible, though Bulbasaur wasn't sure he was aware of that. He sighed. "I hope you're doing okay," he said in a low voice to himself.

There was sudden rustle to his left and Bulbasaur's head snapped to attention just in time to see Abra remove himself from a bush and sit next to the plant-pokemon in silence. Bulbasaur watched him closely. For a while the pokemon didn't move and Bulbasaur wondered if he had fallen asleep. But even if that were the case, weren't abra able to communicate in their dreams? "Um…. Hi?" he tested.

"It's a full-moon," the pokemon said abruptly in a voice as monotone, deep, and creepy as his trainer's.

Bulbasaur jumped and looked back up at the moon, suddenly surprised. How long had he been staring at it and not even noticed? "So it is."

"I didn't know what it was at first," Abra went on to say as if Bulbasaur knew exactly what it was talking about. "But now I think I get it a little. On the full-moon at midnight you will undergo an extreme change."

Bulbasaur blinked. "Change? What are you talking about?"

"My spell," Abra explained. "It was experimental. Neither Mistress Victoria nor I knew what it was capable of. We thought it was just a dud when you ended up winning the battle, but after a few hours in meditation, I think I understand what it is now."

"Wait, you mean that strange attack actually had an effect on me? What kind of effect?"

"A transformation, I presume."

"Transformation?" Bulbasaur looked down at his body and felt all around for any abnormalities, but nothing showed up. "Um, I still feel the same."

"Full-moon," Abra said, pointing up to the sky. "Midnight." And with that, it got up and returned back the way it had come, leaving Bulbasaur in a mess of confusion.

***

Bulbasaur did not wake up in a pleasant mood the next morning. First of all, the sun had barely come up and he was getting an oddly cold breeze that he should not have been able to feel inside of his warm, cozy pokeball. He shivered as the breeze ran across his bare body again and he curled up into a tighter ball. But that's when he started to notice that something was wrong. His eyes flew up and he shot up into a sitting position. However, despite only being at half his height, he was still seeing things twice as tall as what he usually was when standing on his tiptoes. He looked down at his hands and it all he could do not to scream.

Bulbasaur was hardly a bulbasaur anymore. He was human. Tall, with fine-toned muscles built into his thin frame. His hair was short and deep green with his two triangular ears forming out of his roots on the top of his head. His red eyes were smaller and narrower, yet he could still see perfectly through them. On his back was a strange seed thing that he assumed was once his bulb, now reduced to a flat piece of brown flesh with a slit along his spine where his vines poked out, ready for action at will. Other than that, he was a normal human being - two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, 10 toes and fingers, one nose, one mouth, ect.

Another breeze rolled in and Bulbasaur discovered the long asked question, "Why do human's wear clothing?" Because humans didn't come equipped with their own shelter against the weather. He looked up at the bed next to him. Ash and Pikachu were curled up together, sound asleep. At the foot of the bed, Brock lay in a tight hammock, his large blue backpack resting underneath him. Bulbasaur rushed to the backpack as quietly as he could and rummaged through its contents. He managed to find an outfit that Brock had never worn before and yet managed to fit the human-pokemon perfectly. A long-sleeve green t-shirt and long working jeans. He got up to observe his new self in the mirror that came with the room. After gaping for a few minutes he became aware that two odd triangular forms on his head were not normal for most humans. He went back to Brock's bag and retrieved a wonderful square hat that fit on his head nicely.

Bulbasaur didn't know what to do, but he decided that finding the witch and her possessed Abra was a good start. He made a move to remove himself from the cottage before his trainer woke up when a loud jingle sounded throughout the room. He froze. Ash snored loudly and rolled over, but other than that, nothing happened. Quietly and quickly, Bulbasaur turned around and looked down at the floor. Somehow, he had dropped a small silver object he wasn't even aware had been on him.

The silver band with the word "Friends" written across it.

Bulbasaur felt a wave of affection cross over him and he leaned down to pick it up. Before now, he had always either tied it around his neck or kept it in his bulb (which really wasn't a storage area, but the ring was small so he thought it'd be okay). But now that he was a human he could wear it the proper way and slipped it on his long ring finger.

Now, without any more interruptions, the ex-pokemon sped from the temporary hut and into the rising morning sun of the forest.

***

It was oddly warm. And Squirtle was convinced it wasn't because of the burn marks he had obtained the night before. He looked to his left a little and saw two blue heads sleeping soundly against him. Then to his right and there were the other two heads of his gang. Then he looked down the middle and screamed. Technically it was a little girl scream, but if I actually put that down, Squirtle would come after me personally.

The Squirtle Squad leapt up and looked around for a robber or a fire, instead they saw their leader and all started running around in hysteria. One Water Gunned poor Squirtle in the face and he was knocked over. Officer Jenny was in the room next, still in her nightgown, her blue hair all astray. She took one look at Squirtle and took the gun out of its little pocket on her thigh. "Thief!" she shouted. "You have the right remain silent! You're under arrest!" She looked around at the other four squirtle as they clumsily gathered at her side. A quick head count made her look back up at the scared gang leader. "What have you done with Squirtle?"

"Jenny, it's me! I am Squirtle!"

"Pervert!" Jenny accused, pointing out the obvious lack of clothes on the… Squirtle looked down at himself one more time just be sure. Yup, he was sure. He had either died and gone to hell or was in some kind of weird dream, because Squirtle now had his very own human body.

"You have 10 seconds to explain yourself!" the officer shouted angrily as Squirtle stood up, not ashamed of his new bare body. After all, he wasn't conscious of the embarrassment that came without having clothes for a human. Though he did feel a little weird not having a shell on.

"Um…" He quickly decided that there wasn't going to be any convincing Officer Jenny. After all, she was a very down to earth cop and there would be no mysterious witchcraft in her office. Dream or not, Squirtle didn't feel like going to jail. "Um, I'm sorry, Officer..." He put his hands up like he had seen accused persons do in old movies to show they had no weapons. "If you'll let me I'll leave immediately. Honest to God, I don't know how I got here or what happened but…"

Jenny glared at him for a minute, then sighed and lowered her gun. "Let's get some clothes on you. What's your name, kid?"

'Kid?' he thought. 'How old do I look?' He decided to find a mirror as soon as possible. Knowing what your face looked like was a great deal of help in certain instances. "Sq-Skimmy. My name is Skimmy. Skimmy McOswald."

The Squirtle Squad all looked at each other and Squirtle knew they were trying really hard not to laugh as Officer Jenny gave him an odd look. "Um.. Alright then Mr. McOswald. Do you know where your clothes are? You do know streaking is illegal, right?"

Squirtle nodded, then corrected himself. "I mean, no and yes. I have no idea where my clothes are, but it's probably not my fault because I'm a good citizen and don't break the law." Then he beamed at her for added innocence effect.

Now, Squirtle knew he was always a handsome devil as a pokemon, but who would've thunk he'd be so dreamy as a human too? He had long, dark blue, slick hair that shaped his head and neck beautifully and tied into a cute little ponytail when needed. His brown eyes were sharp, yet big and noticeable with their own shine to them. Being taller than he was used to, he had a bit of trouble keeping his balance at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Officer Jenny had succumbed to his awesome charms and supplied him with suitable, badass clothing. A tight purple shirt under a short biker's jacket and sexy cargo pants. He had found the 'Best' ring that had rolled out of his shell somewhere during the transformation, and currently wore it under a pair of biker gloves so that none of the guys were see it. After all, badass or not, that ring had sentimental value.

Then, with even more charm and flashing of his outrageous good looks, Squirtle managed to score a bike. Granted, it was a cheap, almost dead motorcycle and he had to do a bit of house work before Jenny even thought of handing it over, but in no time at all, he stood outside the office, staring down at his four buddies who still thought his name was Skimmy.

"Bye guys.." he croaked. "It was nice… Meeting all of you." He looked at Jenny. "Thanks for the help Miss. I'll find your Squirtle if it's the last thing I do."

Jenny nodded. "We're counting on you Mr. McOswald. I don't really know why, but we are. So good luck."

He took one last look, and then took off on his crappy motorcycle with no idea where he was going. But something deep within his mind and heart told him that no matter where he went now, the road would lead him to an old friend.


	3. Chapter 2

Ash had been pacing so long, Pikachu was surprised he hadn't dug his own little trench in the wood floors yet. Togepi had passed out several hours ago, simply hypnotized by the constant back and forth motion of the worried trainer. Pikachu, too, was worried to begin with, and continued trying to be that way, but occasionally he'd get lost in his own hypnosis in the human metronome.

"Ash, would you calm down?" Misty urged, rocking her sleeping baby. "I'm sure they're both fine. You know how those two are."

Ash didn't stop pacing. "Yeah, it's not like I don't have faith in them. I mean, they were both raised by an awesome trainer," he only stopped pacing to physically gloat briefly. "But still… I can't just sit here…"

It had been enough on poor Ash to wake up with Bulbasaur's empty pokeball spread-eagle on the floor and no trace of his beloved plant pokemon. But then, not two seconds after the find, he had received a call from Officer Jenny reporting that Squirtle was missing from the squad.

"Pika," Pikachu suggested, pointing to the door. He didn't see why it was such a bad idea. A search would get Ash's mind off things and make him more confident that his pokemon were okay.

Ash looked out into the dense wilderness and nodded vigorously. "Alright! Let's go! Hold on guys, we're coming!"

***

Bulbasaur crept along the outside of a moist, eerie cave. He really didn't want to go inside, especially since the wind had picked up an odd smell coming from deep within its caverns. But he had no choice. He had searched every dark, mysterious place and frankly, this had been the most suspicious one yet. If he skipped over it, he could very well be skipping over Victoria.

He mustered all of his strength and sucked in his doubts about the place, then proceeded with caution and a held breath. There was a drip every now and then and Bulbasaur's eyes were drawn to the roof of the cave. Of course it was just his luck that it wasn't water dripping down to the floor. Zubat lined the walls and they obviously hadn't been out to use the facilities lately. Bulbasaur just hoped they had some dignity to aim away from him as he crept low to the ground, as quiet as he could be so as to not disturb them. After several minutes of this, he was getting impatient to leave the dreadful cave, but could clearly see how someone like the witch would find enjoyment in it every day.

The zubat turned into the golbat and eventually turned into crobat, and then finally the line of evolution stopped and the smell started to die away as he got farther and farther away from the sleeping herd. Just when it was starting to get too dark for his weak human vision to cut through the darkness, he began to feel warmth fill his body and a small light dotted the end of his tunnel. He inhaled for the first time in a long while and sped up a little, standing up straighter with more confidence. He wasn't two feet away when a familiar, creepy voice made him stop. "What are you doing here?"

"Um… Miss Victoria?" he asked politely.

"Yes, that is I. Who are you?" It was weird, being responded to like that from a human. As a pokemon, Bulbasaur had always been able to understand them perfectly, but the comprehension had never been quite mutual, so this all new to him.

"It's going to sound a little weird…"

"I've seen my share of weird in this world," Victoria responded. "I can tell that you are a trustworthy person. You may come forth and take a seat by the fire if you'd like."

Bulbasaur didn't hesitate. He almost ran to the small camp that the witch had set up in her cave. She was surrounded by what was probably her entire team. A misdreavus floated around the perimeter of her dug out, occasionally singing the verses to an unfamiliar song. A baby natu slept peacefully in Victoria's lap as she took a sip of some unknown brown liquid out of a mug. The family was completed with Abra, resting next to her in an unknown state.

"Ah brah…" the pokemon hissed and Bulbasaur felt a pang deep inside of him. He didn't understand pokemon now. So this is what it was like to have the human-language handicap.

"I see," Victoria said casually before taking a sip. Clearly, she was the one exception to the language rule. "So you're the bulbasaur we fought yesterday."

"How can you say it so casually?" Bulbasaur asked, suppressing a shiver.

Victoria ignored the question. "You want to turn back to your normal self, don't you?"

"Of course!" Bulbasaur all but shouted. "I don't even know how to be a human! Not to mention Ash is probably already freaking out. I can't just leave him forever!"

"I understand." She was talking slowly, taking her own sweet time with the stressed out and anxious pokemon. She took another long sip of her drink before going on. "Well, it was only an experimental spell, so the effects will wear off eventually."

"Really?" Bulbasaur asked with the sigh of relief already in his voice. "How long?"

Victoria exchanged a look with Abra, who didn't actually look back. (I know, sounds weird doesn't it?) "We assume it will take about a year."

"A year?!"

"Now you desire a faster way to reverse the effects."

"Well aren't you quick?" the former-pokemon snapped.

Victoria didn't respond for a while and Bulbasaur could only hope for her sake that she was pondering a way to get him out of this mess. Then all the sudden her gaze fell upon his lap and her eyes widened briefly before returning to their usual frown. But they flew up to look Bulbasaur square in the face anyway. "That ring you are wearing. Is there a second one?"

Bulbasaur blinked and suddenly blushed. "Um… Maybe… Why?"

"Usually pokemon don't wear metallic objects so we over look this particular fault in Abra's spells. However, if you happened to have that during the battle, it could have had some similar effects on this ring's other half."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Did you have the ring during the battle?"

"Yeah," Bulbasaur responded. "I always have it on me."

"Does someone else have the second one?"

He was reluctant to answer at first, his fleshy cheeks heating up in a blush. "Well…" In the end he decided it was best not to lie to the witch. She'd probably just read his mind for the real answer anyway. "Yes. But he's miles away and I haven't seen him in several days."

"No matter. He is still in danger of becoming like you in this current state."

"Wait! So you're telling me that Squirtle…" Bulbasaur looked down at his human figure and his eyes widened. "Oh no…" He looked back at Victoria, frantic now. "Is there another cure? I have to know now and then I have to leave before it's too late."

Victoria nodded, understanding the pokemon's hurry. "Yes, there should be. However, I do not have it. You will have to go see the old fisher on the other side of Route 34. She is a very talented fortuneteller also and she will surely know what to do."

Bulbasaur nodded and stood up. "Thank you. Have a good day."

"I wish you luck, Bulbasaur."

"Ah brah…"

With that, the human-pokemon turned and ran from the cave as fast as his hunched over form could go.

***

The roar of the machine below him, the rush of the wind in his deep blue locks, the adrenaline from going at a speed he had never dreamed of - Squirtle was in heaven. He had been driving like that for a while when all the sudden his tranquility was interrupted by a very large speed bump and a shout, one from him and one from somewhere else on the road. The bike went tumbling completely over, Squirtle going with it. He landed a few feet away from his motorcycle. He clenched his teeth, trying to suck up the minor bruise-like pain that shot through his side and sat up to see what he had hit. Beyond his motorcycle in the middle of the road was another human being, out cold.

Squirtle panicked and ran to the man, who was miraculously not bleeding but looked fast asleep. Squirtle looked left and right, but there was nothing but trees. He tried calling out for help, but no one came. Finally he ran to the motorcycle in hopes that it would have some means of saving the poor stranger. He managed to find a secret compartment in the seat of motorcycle but all it had were some band-aids, a couple of bottles of potion, and one bottle of super potion. Squirtle frowned. That was pokemon medicine; he didn't think it would be able to help this person! But band-aids clearly weren't going to do a lot seeing as how the man wasn't bleeding and, well, "It's worth a shot," he said through gritted teeth, grabbing the super potion and running back to the poor victim.

Without a seconds thought he lifted the man's shirt and had to stop, his breath caught in his mouth. Despite being all dark red (probably on its way to turning purple) this man had a very nice stomach. It looked like he was a very strong guy, but not the kind that liked to flaunt it. Squirtle shook the odd thought from his head and sprayed the super potion all over the man's stomach. A few minutes passed and nothing happened aside from Squirtle's sigh. He had been wrong. He had just killed a human being.

Then, all the sudden, there was stirring. Squirtle's head shot up and looked at the clenched face of the stranger. Piercing red eyes shot open and glared down at Squirtle. "What… Happened?"

Squirtle's own amber eyes widened and he looked at the super potion. "It worked? But how?" He watched in awe as the strange colors on the otherwise perfect middle started to vanish and the stranger sat up, straightening out his shirt.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"Ah-Uh…" Squirtle looked the man over now that he could see his face in the right light. He didn't know why, but the only word that came to his mind was 'handsome'. He felt a little intimidated.

Then his eyes fell upon the man's left hand and all admiration vanished.

"Hey!" the former pokemon shouted accusingly, standing up. "Where did you get that ring?!"

The green-haired stranger also stood up, shock penetrating his hard features. "What are you talking about?" He looked down at the silver band around his ring finger. "This? Why do you care?"

"Because! Did you steal it?"

"No! A special person gave it to me! Who are you to accuse me of being a thief?"

"I know you stole it!" Squirtle said, now the two men were circling each other, getting ready to fight. "Are you a pokemon trainer?"

"No."

"Neither am I." And with that said, the blue-haired man lunged at his victim, hands out and ready to strangle the presumed thief.

However, this stranger proved his strength. He blocked the hands with his forearm and twisted it around to grab his attacker's wrist. Then he quickly spun his body and let loose to throw the guy to the ground. While releasing him, he managed to rip off the gloves that Squirtle was wearing and gapped as a small silver ring identical to his flew off the hand with them.

"Squirtle?" the stranger whispered, kneeling down slowly to pick up the ring.

Automatically Squirtle's head shot up. "Yes?" Then his hand flew over his mouth and he got an uh-oh look on his face. But to his surprise, the stranger didn't accuse him of anything. No, he did the thing that Squirtle could've probably least expected. He ran to the ex-pokemon and wrapped his strong arms around the slightly smaller frame.

"I knew I'd find you," he whispered.

"Um… Who are you?"

The stranger pulled away, smiling softly now. "It's me, Bulbasaur."

Squirtle fainted.

***

He was starting to wake up, but he didn't really want to. Something was stroking the side of his face, but he didn't dare question it because it was soothing and he didn't want to jinx it into going away. He smiled, moaned a little and curled up tighter into himself for bit more warmth. Though, even though it was his way of recognizing the stroke as a good thing, it stopped suddenly and his eyes flew open, fully awake now. He was clearly outside because he could feel the evening sun and hear the birds chirping all around him. But he was lying on a pillow. That was the only explanation for it unless…

"Gah!" Squirtle shouted, sitting upright. He had been resting in someone's lap! But whose? A guy's? Yes! A strange man's! No wait… He thought hard and recognized this guy giving him an odd look now. It was the one that-

"You're awake. Good God, that only took forever."

"Um…" Squirtle looked around, mostly at his human hands, trying to catch his bearings. So it hadn't been a dream… He looked up at the 'stranger'. "What happened?"

"You fainted."

"No! Not that! Explain this!!" he said, shaking his fleshy pink hands in green-haired man's face vigorously.

Bulbasaur sighed and straightened himself up a little more. "Long story short, I got hit with weird hocus-pocus spell thingy and apparently it transferred between our rings and got you too."

"Spell? How?"

"We were just minding our own business when this freaky witch chick showed up out of nowhere and bet Ash $100 she would beat him in a battle. So of COURSE, being Ash, he accepted. And her Abra did the damage."

"Ash?" Squirtle gasped. "Oh my God, you really are Bulbasaur."

Bulbasaur crinkled his nose. "You didn't believe me?"

"Well it's kind of hard to believe any of this!" Squirtle fought back. "You know what I mean?"

Bulbasaur looked around at the orange sky as if looking for answers to life's many questions. After only a few seconds, he gave up and sighed. "Yeah… Sorry I dragged you into this."

Squirtle shook his head. "I'll forgive you if you know how to get us back to normal. I have to get back to the Squad and they won't even let me in the house unless I'm myself."

"Well, I don't know the cure per say… But I do know where someone who does know it might be."

"Well, what are we doing sitting here then?"

"Informing you," Bulbasaur pointed out as he started to stand up. He brushed off his pants (one of his jeans knees had a little stain on it from Squirtle's drool) then held out a hand to help his friend up. "Well? Are you informed now?"

Squirtle took the hand hoisted himself up onto his feet. "Enough. Let's go fix this thing!"

Bulbasaur smiled. He had missed that crazy, impulsive attitude. "Good to see you again, Squirtle."

Squirtle looked taken-aback by this at first, but he smiled and nodded. "You too."

Their hands bounced once in the air and that was that.

***

"I've been expecting you."

Bulbasaur had to use every muscle in his body to fight back the shiver that attempted to crawl down his spine at those words. His hand was still in mid-air, getting ready to knock on the small white door. But before he could've even made contact, it had opened and revealed a short old lady. She had a scepter-like-cane and strange purple hat with a veil in the back.

"Creeeeeepyyyyy," Squirtle hissed in his ear.

"Shut uuuuuuup," Bulbasaur hissed back before following the woman inside. The entry way merged into a very small, perfectly square room with two white doors on the back wall. The rest of the room was barren aside from the short coffee table draped with a white sheet in the very center of the room. Incense drifted out of a pot on the corner of the table, making Squirtle cough lightly when first entering. Other items on the table included three different decks of cards, a huge worn book, and, of course, a crystal ball.

The fortuneteller sat down on one side of the table and the pokemon followed their instinct, taking the other side and staring at her curiously.

"My name is Madam Gwen Evyonne. You are Squirtle and Bulbasaur, once pokemon but now humans due to a curse placed upon you by an abra."

"Yes," Bulbasaur confirmed, most of his suspicion about seeing a fortuneteller gone from his head. Though, most of the information Victoria had had and he couldn't rule out the possibility that she had called the old hag before their arrival. He looked over at his partner to see his reaction and was immediately disappointed. He really shouldn't have expected more than childish admiration to radiate from the fool.

"You wish to turn back to your original forms of course," Evyonne continued.

"Yes. Do you know the cure?"

"Of course. It's simple. Acceptance is the cure for your particular curse."

Both pokemon blinked and were completely silent for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what the fortuneteller was saying to them. Finally, Squirtle asked, "Acceptance?"

Evyonne nodded. "For one reason or another most people on this planet have trouble accepting who they are. It is human nature to find a role model and want to copy off that person and do everything they do. Because people can't accept themselves, they turn into mere clones of other individuals. Hence, your change. So, if you wish to turn back into _yourselves_, you will have to look deep inside of you to accept who _you_ are as a pokemon." She paused, glaring at them from under the brim of her giant hat. "Acceptance."

They left the little hut thoroughly disappointed. Squirtle groaned when they were out of earshot of the house and said, "Acceptance? What the heck? I've already accepted that I'm the coolest person on the planet, what more is there to me?"

"Gee, I dunno, have you ever accepted that you're a big-headed pig?"

"Hey, big-headed maybe, but I am no pig."

Bulbasaur sighed. "At least you know it." He didn't say anything else for the next couple of seconds as he tried to mull over Evyonne's words for a real cure. Nothing came to mind at first, and then he finally came up with a plan. Or, at least, the idea for a plan. "Hey, just north of here is Goldenrod City, right?"

Squirtle stopped and looked at his friend with curiosity for the plan. "So?"

"It has one of those giant shopping centers right in the middle of it. It's a HUGE city! What are the chances that nobody in such a large place would know or sell a cure to strange disease?"

"Likely?" Squirtle fought. "Listen, just because not everyone in the world can be as brainy as you doesn't mean that they're all stupid."

"You never know, Squirtle. It's a big world and out of all the not-so-stupid people out there, I got stuck with you."

Squirtle fumed briefly, but managed to fight back his anger. "So what do you propose we do?"

"Well, if we ever want to be pokemon again, I suggest we go to Goldenrod City and search for the cure ourselves. But we have to get there quickly, before Ash does. We can't let him see us like this."

"Agreed," Squirtle said. "Whelp, looks like we've got a long journey ahead of us. Isn't Goldenrod still several days away?"

"Yeah, and Ash is ahead of us. We don't have any time to lose. Let's go!" It wasn't much of a plan, but both pokemon were satisfied with it for the moment. So off to Goldenrod they went.

***

"Did you hear that?!"

"Sounds like the Twerp's pokemon are in quite a pickle!"

"Human pokemon?! Who woulda thunk?!"

"We have to catch them for ourselves!"

"Why, of course!"

"What a brilliant idea!"

After excitedly voicing their latest scheme to wreak havoc on the world, Jesse, James, and Meowth all jumped out of the bushes of the forest simultaneously, and in one voice declared, "Team Rocket, ready for take off!"


	4. Chapter 3

"I've lost them."

"Me too."

"Me tree."

A joint sigh passed over the trio of wrongdoers. But their moral wasn't down for long. Jesse jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at the purple-haired man beside her. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't distracted all of us by dropping one of your god forsaken bottle caps we'd still be on their trail!"

"My fault?!" James shouted, also standing up. "I couldn't very well leave the cap behind! I mean, look at it!!" He shoved the blue and red bottle cap in his partner's face forcefully. "Limited edition!"

"Would yous twos shut up?!" Meowth interjected. "Who cares whose fault it is? We just gotta find them again but we can't do that if you won't quit arguin'!"

"Shut up, Meowth! This has nothing to do with you!" the two humans shouted at the same time, each pinching one of his cheeks angrily. A small battle ensued, but it was short-lived. For not too long after its start, a familiar voice began to round the corner, forcing Team Rocket to stop squabbling and stand perfectly still.

"Ash do you even know where we're going?" Misty's voice whined into the air.

Team Rocket all exchanged looks of shock and hissed at once, "The twerps!" before hiding behind a nearby clump of bushes.

"I'm following my instinct!" Ash declared as they started to come into view.

"I can think of more than one time when your so called 'instinct' has gotten us lost," the red-haired trainer pointed out.

"Pika pika…" Pikachu agreed.

"Hey! Whose side are you on anyway?"

"Let's catch Pikachu!" James hissed.

"Not now!" Jesse snapped. "We don't have a plan!"

"Shh! Or they'll hear us!" Meowth ordered.

But it was too late. Pikachu's ears twitched as he caught a wiff of the voices and he looked dead on in their direction, his trainer following his eyes. "What do you see buddy? Is it Bulbasaur or Squirtle?"

"Pi…"

"Now look yous done!" Meowth snapped at his comrades, smacking them on the head.

"Well, I guess there's no hiding now," Jesse sighed, standing up. "Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!" James followed up, also standing with her. A collective groan washed over the young trainers being assaulted with the repetitive rhyme.

"To protect-"

"Hey! We don't have time for this!" Ash shouted, making Jesse's face go as red as the hair on top of it.

"Well you're going to have to make time, twerp!" she snapped.

"I can't! My pokemon are missing and I have to find them before something bad happens!"

"Oh, you mean that bulbasaur?" James taunted, looking calm.

"And possibly even that squirtle you gave up to the police?" Jesse added, also following an annoyingly calm routine.

Ash gritted his teeth. "Have you guys heard anything about them?"

"We might've," Jesse said, smirking. "But if you want our information, you'll have to pay a price."

"If the price is Pikachu, you can't count it out!" Ash said quickly.

"Pika!"

James shrugged. "Suit yourself. I guess we can't help it if something bad were to happen to your two lost buddies."

Ash was over there in a flash, his hands gripping tightly onto James's collar. "Where are they?"

"Ah, they were heading for Goldenrod City!" James squeaked, positively scared out of his wits by the death-glare the young trainer gave him. Ash threw him away with uncanny strength and stomped down the road.

"I'm on my way guys," he muttered as Misty, Brock and Pikachu struggled to keep up with him.

James sighed with relief as the danger stormed away from him, feeling safe for all of two seconds until he felt the piercing glares of his two teammates upon him. "Um.. guys?"

"YOU IDIOT!!"

"COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE MORE WORTHLESS?!"

"I'M SORRY~~~!!!"

***

Bulbasaur looked up at the mid-day sun and smiled a little, mostly on the inside. They had been traveling for almost 24 hours now, despite the short nap in the dead of the night. Squirtle looked worn out, clearly missing the motorcycle he had wasted and was forced to leave in the middle of the road. Bulbasaur was also tired, but he was feeling motivated by the notion that they were getting ever closer to Goldenrod City and the chances that Ash was still far behind them, searching the area around their last camp for his missing pokemon.

They hadn't said much for a while, but the silence was inevitably broken when the two came to a complete stop at the beginning of a fork in the road. Squirtle sighed. "Oh great. Which way do we go?"

Bulbasaur surveyed their options and pointed, of course, down the straight, perfectly normal road dead in front of them. "Goldenrod City is north, so we just have to keep going that way, of course. Who knows where that road goes," he said, shrugging at the eerie, winding, narrow road that twisted off to the side like a deformed mutant of his pick.

Squirtle looked at the goody-two-shoes road, and then down the baddass road and smirked. "But that way looks no fun. Come on, aren't you feeling adventure just resonate off this way?"

Bulbasaur raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? This is the way to Goldenrod, I'm sure of it. That road will only take us nowhere, or worse, in circles."

"Do you have the map to prove it?" the blue-haired man questioned.

"Does it look like I do?"

"Hey, don't get snappy with me!"

"Snappy?" Bulbasaur groaned. "Listen, you're being dumb. And when I say dumb I mean stupider than usual. Just come on," he ordered before starting to take the more logical road.

"No!" Squirtle protested, making him stop suddenly. "I'm tired of you always thinking you're smarter than me! I think we should go down the cool road so that's the way I'm going!"

"Fine, suit yourself."

"Maybe I will!" Squirtle shouted angrily before storming off down the heavily shaded, dark road.

Bulbasaur sighed as he watched his companion walk away from him. He didn't take his eyes away until the water-pokemon was completely out of sight. Deep down, he wanted to follow Squirtle. But at the same time he thought that the turtle needed to learn a lesson on foolishness, so reluctantly he went down his own road. "I just hope you realize your mistake soon, you big buffoon..."

***

Bulbasaur sipped lightly on his tea. He didn't know where he had learned his table manners, but he must've gotten them somewhere. The kind old hostess wasn't complaining, but smiling kindly. "Just tell me when you'd like some more dear," she said in a cracked voice.

"That won't be necessary Mrs. Rhine," Bulbasaur said politely. "But it is quite delicious tea."

Mrs. Rhine nodded and just as she did so, the doorbell rang and she excused herself to answer it. Bulbasaur wasn't particularly interested until he heard the frantic voice of whoever was at the door.

"Mrs. Rhine, is Thomas around?"

Mrs. Rhine sounded confused, yet frantic in her speech. "No, I'm afraid he's not. What's happened Scott? You're all shook up."

"There's been an accident on the outer road!" the boy named Scott said. "This stranger was randomly assaulted by some growlithe and an electabuzz! It was weird, the growlithe seemed to be scared of him, but the electabuzz was just beating him to a pulp when I found him!"

"A pokemon fighting a human? How dreadful!"

"I think he needs help!"

Bulbasaur was on his feet and at the door in an instant. "Outer road? That's the creepy, windy one not too far from here?"

Scott, clearly taken-aback by the ex-pokemon's sudden entrance, nodded. "Uh… Y-yeah..."

'Please, God, don't let it be him.' "I'll help. Take me there."

They ran the whole way and before they were even there, Bulbasaur could hear the familiar shouts of pain, accompanied by the zapping noise of high-powered electricity. He sped up, but was at the scene too late, just in time to see Squirtle fall to the ground, beaten. As it turned out, in the time that it had taken Scott to run for help and the boys to get back to the scene, Electabuzz had called for backup and now three magnemite were doing the dirty work while the great yellow beast just sat back and watched the poor human get destroyed.

Bulbasaur rushed forward and kneeled next to his fallen friend. "Are you okay?"

Squirtle was breathing hard and he was covered in scars. Nevertheless, he muscled through a smile and gave his green-haired buddy a thumb up. "Never been better."

"Liar."

Squirtle chuckled. "Sorry. Force of habit."

Bulbasaur didn't say another word. He dragged his fallen friend over to the worried Scott and faced the fierce electric pokemon, gearing up for another round. "Who do you think you are, fighting against a weak water type like that?" he demanded. "Not only that, but in a form where he can't even fight back! That's despicable!" In one quick movement he managed to remove his shirt and his hat, to reveal his stubby ears and the flat bulb on his back, his vines withering out in the open. Not too far behind him, Scott, the human, fainted. But Squirtle only looked on with stars practically dancing in his eyes.

"Whoa," the water-pokemon breathed. "How did he do that?"

Bulbasaur opened quite a thrashing on the poor magnemite, his Vine Whip dancing through the air as if the whole act were rehearsed over and over. They all fell to the ground, KO'd one after the other. Then Electabuzz stood up, clearly not happy with how the battle was going. They stared each other off for a bit before charging.

Bulbasaur started out at a dash, but stopped just a few feet short of his charging opponent and unleashed a ferocious Razor Leaf that danced around him to the electric pokemon. The yellow beast had to stop in his tracks to absorb the damage and while he did, Bulbasaur's vines lashed forward, each taking a hold of one of the mighty pokemon's wrists. Electabuzz was quick though and as soon as he registered the contact, he sent a vicious Thundershock down through his fists, using the vines as rods to get Bulbasaur right where it hurt the most. Bulbasaur let loose a shout of pain and Squirtle's eyes winded as he fell over onto his hands and knees, his vines withering back into his pathetic bulb.

"Bulbasaur…"

Electabuzz gloated for a bit before walking over to where Bulbasaur sat crouched, breathing hard. He wound back his hand, charging it up for a powerful Thunder punch.

"Watch out!" Squirtle shouted.

Bulbasaur didn't need the warning though. He looked up at Squirtle, winked, and let loose a powerful Solarbeam, right into Electabuzz's face. He had been charging it while the now fainted Electabuzz had been gloating.

The grass-pokemon stood up and rolled his shoulders in attempt to shake of the shock that still lingered inside of him. "That was weird," he muttered. The shock had gone through his vines and into his bulb, thus getting him from the inside out. Yet, he was strangely all right, just a little weakened up. Still…

"A Solarbeam?!" Squirtle awed as he approached the water-pokemon and the passed out human. "When did you learn that?!"

Bulbasaur shrugged as he slipped his shirt and hat back on. "Just now?"

"How?"

"Well, I did have motivation." As he said it he gave his partner a look that Squirtle was unable to decipher, but gave him a small shiver nonetheless. "Come on," he said, helping Squirtle to his feet by serving as a human crutch. "We'll get back to Mrs. Rhine's house and fix you up."

"What about him?" Squirtle asked, nodding down at Scott.

Bulbasaur shrugged. "I'm sure he'll wake up in a bit and think it was all some weird dream. Nothing to worry about, right?"

Squirtle smirked as they limped off to help. "Whatever."

As soon as the door to Mrs. Rhine's was open and Bulbasaur could see her face, he requested some bandages or whatever other help that she could provide. She was about to hurry off and get her first aid kid when Squirtle stopped her.

"Wait, ma'am, I'm sorry, but I don't need any of that kind of stuff." He got weird looks from both his partner and the old lady. "I mean… Do you happen to have any pokemon Potion?"

***

"I'm sorry for taking advantage Mrs. Rhine," Bulbasaur said as he bowed for his hostess. "We'll pay you back for all of your troubles one day, I promise."

"Oh, think nothing of it, darling," the old woman insisted. It was getting late and Bulbasaur was already worried that they had wasted a lot of traveling time. "But seriously, if you want to, I don't mind it if you stay the night."

"No, we really must be going."

"But I insist."

"Yeah, she insists," Squirtle urged, wanting to stay in a nice, warm bed for once.

Bulbasaur sighed. He was about to give into the pestering when a voice called to their attention on the horizon. "Grandma!" called a young man, about the same age as the Scott-guy had been.

"Thomas!" Mrs. Rhine called in a relieved voice. "Boy, where have you been all day?"

"Sorry I was helping out at the small police post over by the outer road! A thief dropped by and stole this very expensive potion that had been turned in the other day-" He stopped suddenly, noticing the two humanoid-pokemon for the first time. His mouth fell open, and then he pointed an accusing finger at Squirtle. "Speak of the devil! It's the thief!"

Everyone gasped simultaneously and Squirtle could feel the blue hairs on the back of his neck rise. "Me?! I didn't steal anything!"

"Yes you did! Officer Jenny sent out her squad to catch you though! How did you escape?"

"Um…"

"Squirtle did you really steal a potion?" Bulbasaur hissed to his partner.

"No, I swear! It wasn't me!"

"That's a lie! There was an eye-witness!"

"Well your eye-witness was blind because I swear it wasn't me! I didn't even go by a police station!"

Bulbasaur sighed. He knew that Squirtle used to be in a gang, famous for daily robbing and terrorizing a poor little town, but he had renounced his ways when he had joined Ash's team. And even though he had rejoined his gang, it was for a good cause. Squirtle just wasn't that kind of person before and even though the evidence seemed to be pointing to him, Bulbasaur had no choice but to believe his partner.

"Sorry for all the trouble ma'am," Bulbasaur said, grabbing onto Squirtle's wrist. "But we have to go now. I promise we'll pay you back!" and with that, he dragged his wanted friend down the road at top speeds that Thomas, the wanna-be-cop, had no hopes of chasing.


	5. Chapter 4

It was small, and not on the map, but Pissikimo Valley was definitely a living area with a population, however small it may be. But, since it was uncharted, outsiders rarely visited unless they were family of residents. So when a strange couple casually walked in passed the welcome sign like they owned the place, of course everyone who had the capability turned to see who they were.

It was a fine, handsome pair. The man was tall and lean wearing casual clothes with the large brim of a box-hat pulled low to cover half of his face in shadows. The woman was also tall, but unlike her significant other she seemed more likely to be dressed for a ball with a wide gown, a large sun hat, and even a parasol that she lazily dragged behind in the dirt. Occasionally the man would nudge her and she would jump into a straight walk, the parasol going over her shoulder, but not long after a couple of minutes she'd slink back into a lazy walk. Strange strangers indeed.

The only two young women in the whole village stood outside a little tavern and sighed to themselves. "He's handsome," one said in a hushed voice to her friend.

"Yeah. It's too bad that he has that woman with him. She looks pretty but those manners are atrocious!"

The woman shot a fiery brown glare at the two from under her giant pink brim and they hushed up immediately. In fact, the smarter of the two raced inside the tavern and her friend followed behind shortly.

"Squirtle," the man said, catching his partner's attention.

Squirtle groaned and looked up into the shaded face. "Yes _sir_?"

Bulbasaur knew it would just be pain to hold back the smirk, so he didn't even try. "Could you at least try being a lady for once?"

"You know I hate you right?"

"Of course you do." He chuckled. He had really been enjoying life since the acquirement of the dress. Seeing as Squirtle was on the run from the law now, they had needed a disguise. Luckily, Bulbasaur was able to convince a random old man that his wife was in desperate need of a new outfit and was given the article of clothing no doubt about to be apart of one of the most satisfying moments of his life.

But they were passed that. Now the couple's eyes darted from store to store, Squirtle's grazing the left side of the town and Bulbasaur's focused on the right. Finally the green-haired man said in a hushed voice, "Alright, I found one, stay here," and ran into a hotel.

Squirtle sighed loudly and proceeded to slouch against a large pole outside the inn. A couple of people even stopped to stare at him, but he didn't care. He didn't even give them recognition for their existence. Only slouched and waited.

Bulbasaur returned not too long later, but to the poor bored water pokemon it had seemed like an eternity. Of course, that didn't stop him from jumping to attention at his partner's arrival. "Alright, the police already went through here earlier today so I guess it's safe to stay here for the night."

"Really?" Squirtle asked eagerly. "You mean with like, a bed and everything?"

"Well, we don't have enough money to pay for a room - correction, we don't have any money at all. So I suggest we start finding a nice place in the woods outside this village before the sun goes down again."

"Man! Woods again?!" Squirtle moaned before leaning against the pole again.

"Excuse me," the couple looked up suddenly after being interrupted by a very proper gentleman standing across them. And I mean proper. This guy had a suit, mustache, monocle, everything! The strange couple was feeling a little intimidated, but it was nothing Bulbasaur couldn't handle.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I just overheard you talking and I understand that you need a place to stay?" His eyes kept drifting over to the 'woman', and 'her' partner's red eyes narrowed at him, not pleased with the first impression.

"Maybe. What would you do if we said yes? Would you pay for us for a night here?" He gestured at the inn behind him.

"Not quite. You see, I own this small little ranch just outside the village and if you'd like," this time his eyes lingered on the cross dresser for a longer period of time. "I can offer a room for your lady."

Squirtle blushed under his pink hat, but his eyes were furrowed and a frown was set into his mouth. Bulbasaur had mixed emotions of amusement and annoyance, so he struggled to hold back both a chuckle and a glare. "What about me?"

"Oh, it is a ranch. You could sleep out in the barn if you like. It's really quite comfortable this time of year."

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll-"

"Accept," Squirtle butted in, cutting his pride in two and smiling as charmingly as he could.

"What?"

"Oh, please Bob?" he begged in a voice that was eerily too feminine. "We haven't had a decent night's sleep in days!"

"But, _Dear_, I thought you LOVED camping."

"Well maybe I did, _Sweetie_, but I've changed my mind. I want. To sleep. In. A. Bed."

"Well it's settled then!" the gentleman shouted happily. "You shall take up refuge in my house.

Squirtle smiled innocently at his fuming partner and jogged over to their host, looping one arm into his and prancing off with an angry Bulbasaur dragging his feet behind them.

***

There was little in the world that could distract Ash Ketchum now as he rummaged around in the brush of the forest, calling out his pokemons' names periodically. However, it seemed that the familiar hum of an engine and the not so frequently heard voice calling his name were one of the few things that could. He sat up and turned around, completely shocked to see Officer Jenny ridding up in a new motorcycle, complete with a sidecar that at the moment held four particularly depressed squirtle.

"Officer Jenny," he said in a very serious and quite out-of-character tone as he stood up to greet her. "Any news on Squirtle?"

Jenny parked her bike and approached the trainer with a sad look, shaking her head. "Well, in a way. But it's not exactly anything to celebrate about."

Ash's heart jolted down a bit, feeling the weight of bad news already upon him. "What is it?"

"The morning that Squirtle disappeared we found a strange man in his place. After a lot of whining we let him go, but I'm afraid we made a terrible mistake. Recently I've gotten reports about the same man stealing expensive potion from a local Police Station's vault." She rummaged around in her pockets and withdrew a photo of the suspect. "These are some photos that the security cameras caught of him fleeing the scene of the crime." There were three pictures and none were in very good quality, nor showed the front of the man. The only really distinguishable feature was the long blue hair. "It looks like this guy really was the thief and I have a bad feeling he kidnapped Squirtle."

"What's his name?" Ash asked, not looking up at her face.

"He told us it was Skimmy McOswald, but I hardly believe him. Especially after this."

"I'll find him," the young trainer said with a shaky voice through gritted teeth, the hand with the photos gripping tightly in the corners. "I'll find him and make him pay for what he's done to us."

***

Bulbasaur let out a very long and loud moan even though he was well aware that no one would hear his dismal cry. He was partially curled up, not all that interested in keeping the cold away. Still, a blanket would have been nice. Or a mattress. Or anything that wasn't a ruddy old haystack. Bulbasaur moaned loudly again and rolled over into the exact same position, but on the opposite side of his sore, human body.

Now that he was facing the left wall he had a clear view of the screen-less window high up on the barn wall. Through that he could see one side of the lavish house in which Squirtle was no doubt getting ready for a wonderful night's sleep in a huge, comfortable bed with soft covers and probably even a creepy old man to keep him warm. Bulbasaur involuntarily shivered. He did not like the feeling he got when he thought of the 'gentlemen' that had randomly picked them up in Pissikimo Valley. In fact, now that the ex-pokemon was alone and was able to think about it in depth, he decided he really didn't want his partner in that house alone with Mr. Rich much longer.

Wearily, Bulbasaur pushed himself to his feet and lumbered out of the barn. Along the way he scooped up a smooth pebble and bounced it in his hands a few times before chucking up to a window on the second story where a thin silhouette had just appeared beyond the drapes. It made a small clunk and the dress-lined frame stiffened for a bit before throwing open the curtains, yanking the window open and sticking its head out into the chilly night air. Squirtle had discarded his giant pink hat and now his shoulder-length blue hair bounced in the fickle wind. His deep amber eyes immediately frowned down upon his friend. "What?"

Bulbasaur raised an eyebrow and let a small smirk crack into the corners of his mouth. "Why are you still wearing that dress? Not that I'm complaining but…"

"Would you shut up? Freaking pervert. The old man just let me be alone so of course I haven't had time to take it off."

The smirk disappeared, but Bulbasaur's eyebrow remained raised. "What could you have possibly been doing in the past two hours?"

"Drinking and socializing."

Bulbasaur couldn't help it. He let out a loud, obnoxious laugh and almost fell over.

"Would you shut up?! I just got rid of him and I don't want him coming back."

"S-Sorry. Just wondering what you did with the real Squirtle. Though I'll admit, this She-Man version of him is way more fun." He calmed down a bit then said, "Anyway, get down here."

Squirtle pouted a little and looked in a different direction, not really focusing on anything but the horizon of a cloudless sky. "I can't."

"Why not? There's a lattice right there that you can just crawl down. It's not like there's a 50 foot jump between you and the ground, wimp."

"Easy for you to say," Squirtle mumbled. "You're not the one in a dress."

"Well, you wouldn't be wearing a dress if you hadn't stolen that potion, would you?"

This got a rise of anger out of Squirtle and he finally glared down at Bulbasaur, mostly back to his old self. "I told you I didn't steal anything! I was framed! Had to have been!"

Bulbasaur sighed a little and put his arms in front of him. "Well, try your best if you have to. I just don't feel safe with you alone in that house with Mr. Ladie's-Man, okay?"

Squirtle grunted and struggled up onto the windowsill where he kicked his legs out in front of him and then slowly but surely lost balance right before Bulbasaur's eyes. After that it was a blur of pink frills and lace as the cross dressing pokemon came tumbling down upon his green-haired pal. He sat stunned for a moment then quickly shuffled off, straightening out the tangled layers of his gown. As he did, Bulbasaur struggled to his feet with a groan, holding his poor head that had just been smacked against the hard ground, only barely cushioned by a thin layer of soft grass.

"I'm not sorry," Squirtle huffed as he stalked to the barn. "I told you it was going to be difficult but nooooo."

"Squirtle…" Bulbasaur moaned.

Squirtle stopped just outside the barn door and whirled around to glare at the grass-pokemon. "What do you want?"

Despite his headache, Bulbasaur let loose a light chuckled and reached through the darkness to the collar of Squirtle's dress where a little out of place purple cloth poked out. "You moron. If you were wearing your normal clothes underneath the dress, you could have taken it off you know."

Squirtle paled, frozen on the spot for a moment. He had been starting to get used to women's clothing and had forgotten that at first he had completely rejected the idea and left as much of his boy clothing on as possible. After he got his marbles back, he quickly ripped the buttons out of their holes down his back and practically jumped out of the dress, discarding it into the wilderness.

"Well now you can't go back in Whats-His-Face's house," Bulbasaur pointed out, his satisfaction increasing.

"Shut up! Who needs a bed when I can tough it out in the cold out here under the stars?" Squirtle asked in the manliest voice he could muster, storming into the barn and slamming his seat down into the haystack that Bulbasaur had previously been using as a bed. The grass-pokemon smiled after him then followed, also falling down on the hay. But he, unlike his partner, lay down as if to go to sleep and closed his eyes.

Squirtle, not tired at all, carefully slid his gaze over his resting form. Gradually he rose up the slim features to the top of Bulbasaur's green head and his eyes rested on the uncovered pokemon ears the materialized out of the human fur.

"Hey," he said unconsciously quiet. "How come you still have some features of a pokemon, but I have nothing?" He looked down at his very human hands, all wrinkled and peach colored.

Bulbasaur's red eyes flashed open and after a minute he forced himself to sit up next to Squirtle. "Maybe I already have some of the cure."

"What?!" Squirtle's calm resolve shattered just like that and he glared at his partner. "You found it and you've been holding it behind my back?"

Bulbasaur rolled his eyes. "Boy are you ignorant. That's not what I mean."

"Then what is it smarty pants? Hmm?"

Bulbasaur shrugged, feeling backed into a corner. "I don't know! The old lady said it was 'acceptance' remember?"

"Yeah, but I've never heard of that potion before."

"Oh my god you're stupid," Bulbasaur moaned. "She didn't mean a potion. I think she means that we have to accept something. Accept who we are if we want to be that way again."

"Okay!" Squirtle shouted to the heavens. "I accept that I'm a pokemon! I am a squirtle, the water pokemon and I have a shell and a tail and I can use attacks like Watergun and Bubble Beam. There, I've accepted it! And I never didn't accept that knowledge! So why am I still a human?!"

"Well obviously it's not something as simple as that. Maybe it's something deep inside of us that we've never even noticed before. Or rather, that I've noticed just barely but that you never have."

Squirtle looked back at Bulbasaur, indignant features set firmly into his face. "Fine. What is it? What is it that you've figured out that I'm too stupid to grasp?"

Bulbasaur wanted to tear his gaze away from Squirtle to concentrate so that he could figure it out himself, but suddenly he couldn't. Despite the water-pokemon not looking too happy, the moonlight was spilling in through the window above him just so that the silvery light caught on the side of his face just right, making him almost glow, and Bulbasaur was hypnotized.

"Maybe…" He murmured to himself as Squirtle's anger melted into curiosity.

"Maybe what?… Bulbasau-?"

Squirtle's voice was swallowed up in a sudden, soft kiss.

A/N: I totally made up Pissikimo Valley. (But you probably already guessed that.) SORRY. ^^; I'll try to NEVER do that again.... Anyway...


	6. Chapter 5

Squirtle's long fingers gently rolled over his glossy skin, taking in the new, stiff features. One brown eye glanced over his shoulder as he lightly rolled over his back, looking at his reflection in the clear pond behind him. His mouth was slightly ajar in wonderment.

Sometime in the middle of the night he had felt his back stiffen up and as soon as the sun had risen the next morning, he had rushed out into the forest to see what was the matter. It was still a fleshy human back, but now there were faint black lines that traced brown hexagons all over it. It almost barely resembled his shell, which he missed dearly. Especially at times like this when he would give anything to crawl inside its secure confines and hide from the world. Or, at the very least, a certain green-haired man that was all the sudden giving him chills and mini-hot flashes every time their eyes met. (Which, in all consideration, hadn't been very much the past night as Squirtle had spent most of the time avoiding Bulbasaur.)

"Hey," a voice suddenly called softly from behind Squirtle, making him shiver violently. Squirtle blindly reached out to his side and slid on his shirt, but didn't turn around.

"What?" he asked bluntly.

Bulbasaur looked at his partner's back and was silent for a moment, his eyes telling the story of his remorse. He felt unbalanced and awkward now, even though he knew that he was just out of reach of happier feelings. If only Squirtle would turn around and look him in the eye then maybe the world would be right again. He would even force himself to forget those blossoming feelings deep inside his heart if he were given the promise of their friendship again.

Bulbasaur cleared his throat, mostly to get himself out of his little trance and held a sheet of paper out to Squirtle's back. "Someone knows we're here. And I think they know who are."

Squirtle didn't answer immediately. He was frozen in shock, but was finding that hard to believe. "H…How?"

Bulbasaur shrugged, holding out the piece of paper in his hand. "Someone left this letter attached to the barn door for you. It has 'Squirtle' written on the front. So I'm assuming it's not from the old man."

"Let me see," Squirtle said quickly as he stood up and turned around, still not meeting his partner's eyes. But Bulbasaur's sad gaze suddenly caught a glint of silver before his partner's left hand was covered completely by his big black leather gloves. His heart did a flip, but he dared not draw attention to it.

The water pokemon snatched the letter from Bulbasaur and ripped it open ruthlessly. Inside was a small piece of paper that had fit in the square concealment nicely without even being folded. At first Squirtle was surprised he could read it, but only barely. So as he read out loud, it was slow, trying to decipher the human code that should have been alien to him.

"Pokemon, I am the real potion burglar. A rare book of curse-curing spells was found recently and turned into an old man that studies artifacts just north of where you are now. Tonight I am going to steal the book. Be there if you wish to catch me."

Everything was silent for a moment as Squirtle gapped at the piece of paper and Bulbasaur frowned in disbelief. Finally he said, "Who does he think we are?"

Squirtle blinked, not taking his eyes off of the piece of paper, but closing his jaw temporarily, only to reopen it. "Um, well he seems to know who I am."

"How?"

"I don't know. But," he clenched his fist, a determined smirk crossing his features. "If I catch him, then I can finally clear my name!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Bulbasaur objected, shaking his head. "Are you stupid?! This is a trap, you idiot! We can't just walk right into it!"

"Yes I can!" Squirtle shouted back fiercely. "I can and I will!"

"Do you know what you're saying?!"

All the sudden, Bulbasaur ran forward and put both of his hands on his partner's shoulders. A second too late he realized the contact and Squirtle fell completely silent, mentally shrinking away from his partner. Even so, Bulbasaur didn't release the contact. Actually, against his better judgment, he moved his arms around the shoulders and pulled Squirtle into a hug. "Dummy, you might get hurt."

Squirtle was still, shocked into a mental recession. When he did find his voice, it was only a stammer. "W…. Well, I'm gonna have to try…"

"Squirtle…"

Squirtle didn't want to hear anymore. He didn't want to _feel_ anymore. He reached up and pulled Bulbasaur's arms off of him and started walking away into the forest. "I'm going to chase the burglar. If you want to come, fine. If you don't, do what you want." And with that, he started his search for the house of the old artifact collecting man.

***

It was very dark and Bulbasaur was sure that Squirtle was having just as much trouble as he was seeing through the brush of the forest to watch the barely lit porch intently. But Squirtle showed no signs of movement. He only squinted his eyes and sat still, hardly breathing. Bulbasaur tried to do the same, but he was anxious. He knew this whole thing was a trap and he was just waiting for someone to jump up behind them and kidnap them both. But he was ready. Squirtle hadn't noticed when he had silently called upon his Vinewhip and the two long vines had slithered out from under his shirt, resting at his sides, waiting.

When the clock struck midnight, though the time was unavailable to the two waiting human-pokemon, the porch light suddenly snapped out and the entire world went black it seemed. Bulbasaur's eyes squinted harder, but he was finding out that human eyes were crap when it came to night vision. Still, as his eyes adjusted to the minimal moonlight, he managed to catch the faint outline of something skirting around outside the house.

Squirtle must have seen it too because at that moment he shot up from where he sat and ran towards the house quietly. Bulbasaur hesitated, but he followed, his vines zooming out in front of him. He managed to catch one of the smaller two shadows (only realizing there was more than one when they got closer), but to his surprise, he felt it magically materialize out of his grip. There was a faint whirl sound behind him and he turned around to come face to face with a small yellow cat-like being.

"Ah~brah~"

Bulbasaur's eyes widened. "No way," he murmured before spinning back around to meet a pair of eerie blood colored eyes. "V-Victoria?"

Squirtle's head shot up to look at Bulbasaur, shocked as he held the wrist of the young witch. "You know her?"

Victoria said nothing. A blood-curling smile lifted onto her twisted mouth and with her free hand she briefly reached into her cloak before withdrawing a pokeball, which she rolled down to the ground by Bulbasaur's feet. He took a step back, rather afraid of the contents, but his head bumped into the floating Abra and he was forced to stop as Misdreavus rose up to meet his face.

"Mis," the ghost-pokemon chanted before hitting Bulbasaur full in the face with a Confuse Ray.

Bulbasaur fell to his knees, hands clamping over his ears. He tried to shut the attack out, but it was no use. His head started to swim, going in and out of consciousness. But no matter the frame of mind he stayed awake and when he wasn't aware of his surroundings, his own Vinewhip attack lashed angrily against his skin and clothes, tearing the cloth in some places. When he was aware, he could feel the pain, though he didn't know where it was coming from. He could also distantly hear the calling of his name over and over by a vaguely familiar voice.

"Sq…" he struggled to find words, sometimes attacking himself, sometimes trying to keep him sanity when he had it. "Squirt…"

"Bulbasaur!" Squirtle shouted, really looking at his friend for the first time in the past 24-hours. He did not like what he saw. He released the witch and ran to Bulbasaur's side, but wasn't able to get too close because every once in a while, the vines attached to Bulbasaur's back would fly through the air madly. He held his arms defensively in front of face, but miraculously was only lashed once. However, that one beating left a huge gash on Squirtle's forearm that he was forced to ignore.

While the two human-pokemon were distracted, Victoria silently called Misdreavus back to her side and together they slipped into the house of the artifact-collecting old man that they were all gathered in the lawn of. A few minutes after their break in, the lights flipped on and Victoria dashed out the door. In one hand she held a book and a rolled up parchment that was old and worn. In the other she held Misdreavus's pokeball. Said pokemon had to have been residing in there because she was nowhere to be seen and Victoria pocketed the ball soon after. She walked towards Bulbasaur and Squirtle, both still struggling to help Bulbasaur overcome his confusion. She dropped the useless rolled up parchment next to them and called to Abra.

Squirtle looked up at the call and glared at the witch. "You!" he accused, about to run and grab her neck. But before his gloved hands could reach her, Abra teleported him, his trainer, and the old-man's book far from that place.

When the collector finally made it outside, the real robber was nowhere to be seen. Only a passed out human-bulbasaur and Squirtle, the infamous robber who had 'struck again'.

***

Ash stared up at the sky, not able to fall asleep. It had been like that for the past several nights. They still didn't know where his poor pokemon were and he still fostered a grudge for someone he hadn't even met before, a definite first for the young trainer. All around him his friends slept silently probably having wonderful dreams. Probably dreams with Bulbasaur and/or Squirtle in them. How lucky of them. He sighed and rolled over when all the sudden a sharp crackling noise ripped through the silent night above his head.

"Jenny 54," the radio on Officer Jenny's motorcycle cracked. "Jenny 54 do you copy?"

Ash looked over at Jenny who had decided to camp out the night with her Squirtle Squad's leader's original trainer. All around her slept the other four members of his precious friend's team. Though, Jenny showed no sign of budging. She probably usually slept with the radio next to her head so that she would jump to its call no matter the time of the night, but this time it was closer to him than her. So quickly he eased out of his sleeping bag so as not to stir Pikachu and ran to the bike. He picked up the cycle's end of the radio and held in the large button on the side.

"This is Jenny 54's cycle," he said into it.

"You're not Jenny," the other end pointed out, seeming shocked.

Ash rolled his eyes. "Officer Jenny is sleeping. Is it an emergency?"

"Well wake her up! It's about the Squirtle-napping case."

Ash's heart leapt in his chest and his eyes widened. "What about it?"

"Would you just wake up Officer Jenny?" the man on the other end of the radio asked urgently. "This is important stuff."

"Tell me! What about the Squirtle-knapping case? Did you find Squirtle?!"

There was a pause and the other end said, "This must be Ash Ketchum, Squirtle's original trainer."

"Yes! Tell me where me Squirtle is!"

"We don't know, sir. But wake up Jenny and tell her to report to the Route 34 Station ASAP. We found the thief that is suspected of kidnapping Squirtle."

***

Bulbasaur jumped suddenly, consciousness permanently sinking in. He had a ferocious headache, and several other areas of his body stung, so after jumping his next act of awareness was to draw a sharp breath that mutated into a hiss. He eyes slowly slipped open to see that someone was gently applying Potion to several of the wounds on his bare arms.

"Squirtle?" he whispered, a little bit taken aback.

Squirtle didn't say anything for a while. He just looked at all of Bulbasaur's wounds and applied the Potion carefully. Finally after a while he broke the silence and said, "I… Really hate misdreavus now."

Bulbasaur couldn't help but chuckle a little at the comment. The light comment seemed to bring a bit of his strength back and he sat up, rubbing his head as the headache subsided to the far corners of his head, only throbbing dully. But his smile vanished the instant he got a look at Squirtle's left forearm. The giant unclean gash with still-drying blood around its edges was impossible to miss.

"Did… Did I do that?" he asked in disbelief.

"Don't worry about it," Squirtle said quietly, moving his arm from his partner's line of vision. "It's fine." He set the Potion down on the floor next to the jail cell's bed and stood up.

"No," Bulbasaur said, also standing up and grabbing Squirtle's left hand, making the water-pokemon spin around in shock. "It's not okay…" He looked at the wound intently before almost unconsciously taking it up to his face. He lightly kissed the corner of it and was almost surprised when he didn't feel Squirtle flinch under his gesture. Slowly he looked up at the water-pokemon's face. "I'm sorry…"

Squirtle's face was beet red, and he still wasn't meeting Bulbasaur's eyes. He jerked his arm away back to his side and murmured, "It's fine. You weren't in-control of yourself, obviously."

Things were quiet for a moment and neither of the jailed human-pokemon moved or spoke finally Bulbasaur sighed and flopped down on the metal chain bed. "Squirtle," he moaned, feeling his headache mounting again. "What do you think of me?"

Squirtle stiffened, his back to Bulbasaur. He brought his injured arm up to nurse in his good one, staring at the corner of the room and lost deep in thought. What did he think? He didn't know. Bulbasaur was his friend, but nothing more. _Right?_ He was cool, but Squirtle wasn't attracted to him. _Right?_

"Are you sure that this is the thing we're supposed to be accepting?"

Squirtle's words were like sharpened ice knives driving themselves into Bulbasaur's previously fluttering heart, pinning it against him like a dead butterfly. "But… Squirtle, I-"

All the sudden the doors leading into the jail of the Police Station slammed against the wall behind them and two people walked in. The first was seemingly just an Officer Jenny, but only Squirtle was able to recognize her as the Officer Jenny that sponsored his Squirtle Squad. The other was a person that greatly resembled Ash Ketchum. However, neither Bulbasaur nor Squirtle had seen such a bitter look on their trainer's face before.

"Skimmy McOswald?"

Squirtle blinked a few times and jumped, looking at Officer Jenny. "Uh, yes officer?" he asked over Bulbasaur's sudden snort.

"Is it true that you stole a rare potion from this police station a couple of days ago?"

Squirtle shook his head feverishly. "No! That wasn't me-"

"Don't lie to us. We have picture proof. And not only that, we caught you red-handed stealing from Mr. Gibson of Northwest Route 34."

"No, wait! I was fra-"

"Be quiet. Your excuses are useless. All we want to know is did you kidnap a Squirtle from my station the morning I found you?"

Squirtle was dumbfounded. Kidnap himself? In an ironic way, he kind of did, but he didn't need to be held accountable for that. "No… I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're not a very good liar," Officer Jenny accused. The corners of her eyes caught Bulbasaur who was sitting on the bed, looking at his hands and who had been relatively quiet the whole time. "You. Are you an accomplice of this man?"

Bulbasaur slowly looked up, only meeting Officer Jenny's eyes temporarily before looking at Ash. Ash was quiet and sullen, looking down at the floor. He was tensed up, waiting to hear the whereabouts of his beloved pokemon. Bulbasaur was touched. 'Sorry Ash…'

"Speak up," Officer Jenny ordered.

Bulbasaur cleared his throat and walked over to the barred door of the cell. "Sorry Officer, but I can talk to this trainer alone for a bit."

Both humans were taken aback by the sudden request. "Well, I don't know…" Jenny dragged her voice, looking down at Ash out of the corner of her eye.

"I might have information that would interest him," Bulbasaur said this more to his trainer than the officer. "But I can't tell it to anyone else."

That worked like a charm. "Officer Jenny, it's alright. They can't hurt me behind bars," Ash said in a monotone-ish voice.

Jenny looked apprehensively from the trainer to the prisoners, back and forth. Finally, she sighed and said, "Alright, if you say so Ash. I'll send Pikachu in to keep an eye on you." Bulbasaur nodded in approval. Truth be told, he had been rather worried when Ash had walked in without his best pal, but Pikachu's presence would make him more comfortable.

Jenny walked out and Pikachu pranced in with the doors closing behind him. He walked to his sullen trainer's feet, his round eyes narrowed at the two in the cell the whole time. But halfway through his walk, his eyes fully met and locked with Bulbasaur's and his hard gaze softened, feeling a sense of familiarity in those red human eyes.

Bulbasaur smiled at Pikachu, then looked at Ash, seriousness crossing over his face. "Ash, Squirtle wasn't kidnapped."

Ash's sullen face snapped to attention and his wide eyes locked onto Bulbasaur. "What?" He didn't even question how Bulbasaur knew his name.

Bulbasaur nodded. "That's right. In fact, he's in this room. So is Bulbasaur."

That seemed to revive Ash a little and he jumped to attention. "Really?" he asked, newfound hope spreading throughout his body. "Where? Where are they? Bulbasaur! Squirtle!" he called out, trying to peer into the cell behind the two 'felons'.

Bulbasaur slowly reached up to his head and removed the faithful box-hat he had stolen from Brock. His two ears poked out in the air and he wiggled them freely to show that they were real. "Right here Ash. I'm Bulbasaur." He pointed at Squirtle. "And that's Squirtle, though he doesn't have anything to prove it yet."

Squirtle blushed suddenly, his back tingling. "A-Actually.." He slowly removed his jacket and shirt and turned around so that they could all see the odd, faint tattoo. Then hesitantly he said, "It appeared yesterday morning… You can tap it, it's kind of hard like my shell used to be."

Ash's jaw had fallen open. "Uh… Are you serious?!"

Both of the human-pokemon nodded and Bulbasaur's Vinewhip appeared at the bottom of his shirt, slithering out to further prove their point.

"B-But how?!"

"Pika!!!"

"Remember that witch we battled a few days ago?" Bulbasaur asked as Squirtle slipped his shirt back on. "Victoria? It was her Abra's fault. He did some weird spell on me and it turned me into this. Squirtle was affected too. But that's not all; she's the one that's been stealing all that stuff this whole time! Not Squirtle!"

Both Ash and Pikachu were silent for a moment, and then Pikachu wedged itself through the bars and slowly approached Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur smiled and knelt down so they were at least somewhat eye level. Pikachu looked him all over, and even reached out with a little yellow paw to touch his face and ears. Finally, the little round eyes fell onto the silver ring around Bulbasaur's left ring finger and slowly his astonished face broke into a big smile. "Pi!" Pikachu cried, leaping into Bulbasaur's arms and nuzzling the side of his face. "Pikachu pika! Piiiiii~!" Then he leapt from the chuckling Bulbasaur and landed on one of Squirtle's shoulders, nuzzling that slightly more confused pokemon as well.

Ash also beamed. "Well if Pikachu believes you, I do too!" He quickly ran to the back wall and grabbed the keys to their cell. He threw open the door and tackled Bulbasaur with enough force to almost knock him over. "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"Alright?!" Squirtle asked bewildered. "I'm a pokemon! Not a human! If this is what you call alright then-"

"Well, I mean, at least you're not… You know."

Bulbasaur smiled. "We're fine."

"When will you turn back to normal?"

That did it. The happy atmosphere was shattered and both Bulbasaur and Squirtle's eyes drifted to the floor, becoming eerily sullen. Bulbasaur reluctantly answered. "We don't know. The cure is… complicated."

"Anything I can do to help?" the saddened trainer asked. "You know I'll do anything."

"Pika…" Pikachu agreed.

"No, don't worry about it, Ash," Squirtle said quietly.

"Yeah, it's something we have to figure out on our own." All the sudden, Bulbasaur looked up towards Squirtle and their eyes accidentally met. However accidental it was though, they didn't waver for a long moment, Bulbasaur's set in determination and Squirtle's sad and full of confused, conflicting emotions.

"Anyway," Bulbasaur said after a moment that was longer for the two connected human-pokemon than for the trainer and electric mouse. He cleared his throat and broke the eye contact, looking back at Ash. "We have to catch Victoria. I don't know what her goal is, but it can't be good."

"Yeah!" Ash shouted eagerly, punching the air above his head.

"We'll have to break out of jail," Squirtle pointed out as he tickled the middle of Pikachu's head on his shoulder. "I don't think the police are going to believe us as much as Ash did. He knows us better after all."

"The Squirtle Squad might believe you," Ash offered hesitantly.

"Maybe so, but what are they going to do about it?"

"Hmm…" Ash was hesitant and for a moment his eyes met with Pikachu in a silent conversation. But Pikachu nodded and so did his trainer, and at the same time they smiled with hard determination. "Alright. If it's a jail break you need, it's a jail break you get!"


	7. Chapter 6

A bulky wagon awkwardly rolled down the road, kicking up as much dirt as its wide wooden wheels could kick. The back of the wagon was only covered by a short wooden gate and a large thick black sheet. All along the sides, outlandish pottery and skins banged together obnoxiously, as if trying and failing at making their own rhythm. The driver was a tall, thin man just barely over 40 with a black beard that traced spikes all around his jolly smile. In the passengers seat sat an Elekid, his firm, pretending-to-be-grown-up gaze firmly attached to the window.

Considering that the man was joyously oblivious and the Elekid could only keep his gaze on the road directly in front of him, it was a fairly easy task to hitch a ride on the back of the wagon without either of them realizing it. And, that's just what happened. Though, Victoria's style was hardly along the lines of inconspicuously jumping on. A teleport from her favorite yellow psychic pokemon seemed to do the trick. Victoria casually jumped over the short fence and pushed passed the black drape as if she owned it and did it every day. Abra had one last 'look' around the surrounding forest, though it was almost hard to tell that that was what he was doing because his eyes were always in a state of rest. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he too casually slithered into the back of the wagon.

Unfortunately for the psychic pokemon, he had only been looking for things that seemed to pose a threat to him and his thieving master, and on that particular day he had decided that the mal-colored noctowl gliding leisurely above the wagon was just a wild pokemon and therefore no problem. Once Abra wasn't looking, however, the shiny pokemon veered away from the vehicle and started heading backwards over the top of the trees in search of his trainer.

***

Squirtle sat behind a row of wild berry bushes with his head buried in his knees and his mind buried in complex thought. Most of the time he didn't even know what he was thinking about. But one thing was certain, no matter how many twists and turns and ups and downs his thoughts traveled through, they always came back to Bulbasaur and Bulbasaur's kiss.

But the fact that the grass-pokemon had kissed him in the first place wasn't even the confusing part.

The confusing part was that Squirtle had _liked_ it.

As soon as his mind put a period at the end of that disheartening though, the devil himself came into the water-pokemon's view and sat beside him. "Anyone come by yet?"

"Yes," Squirtle answered bluntly, not looking up to greet his green-haired friend.

Bulbasaur blinked at the reply. "Well was it-?"

"No."

Bulbasaur silently nodded at the answer and accepted it. He didn't push any farther, and for that Squirtle was grateful. He didn't want to open his mouth again until he had something productive to say and at the moment there was a lot of hoopla and jumble-jamble going on in his head. After a long stretch of extremely awkward silence, Squirtle finally managed to find his words. "Hey… When all this is said and done and we're pokemon again, everything will go back to normal, right?"

Bulbasaur was a little taken aback by the sudden question and stared his confusion down into the top of the blue head next to him. "What do you mean 'normal'?"

"You know…" Squirtle desperately searched for the right words. "Can't we just… Forget any of this happened?"

"If you're talking about _us_-"

"Bulbasaur, there is no US!" Squirtle shouted suddenly, looking up at the grass-pokemon with frantic desperation in his eyes.

"That's not true," Bulbasaur said sternly, his determined yet gentle gaze not wavering. "I'm sorry, but no matter what you say, I can't just put all this behind me and forget it ever happened. I can't go back to the way we used to be."

"But why?!" Squirtle pleaded.

Bulbasaur hesitated at first, but being a strong pokemon he took a deep breath and said, "Because I lo-"

All the sudden, Ash literally came tumbling down into the scene. To be more specific, in what appeared to have been a frantic run, he tripped over a berry bush near by and did a face plant right at his pokemon's feet. Both Squirtle and Bulbasaur stiffened and went wide-eyed as if they had just been caught red-handed committing a crime worthy of the death penalty. Ash didn't seem to pay their conflicted emotions much attention though. He lifted his head and panted, "J-Jenny is on her way."

Despite his earlier emotions, Squirtle sighed with relief. "She'll fix all this."

Ash nodded in agreement as he sat up and fought to get back his composure. "I told her that you two had kidnapped me," he declared proudly. Even Pikachu, who had leisurely been scampering behind his trainer, moaned a little as if to let the other two know that he had tried to warn the young boy.

Bulbasaur cleared his throat and mumbled, "Well, I hope she doesn't get here before-"

For the third time that day, the poor grass-pokemon was cut off in mid-sentence, only this time it was by annoying clanking sound on the horizon that got increasingly louder and louder with each second that passed.

The team looked out over the bushes to see the wagon that Noctowl had foretold coming straight for them. Grins of triumph crossed every one of their faces and Ash's hands immediately flew to his belt where he detached and prepared two pokeballs. "This should be a piece of cake."

***

It had taken Victoria quite a while to decide that she had finally ransacked the small wagon for anything of value or importance to her. Of course there was too much luggage to just jump out of the back with - and even if it were only a small bag or something, that simply wasn't the witch's style. She reached down to grab Abra's hand at her side, and the next second they were standing just outside the wagon on the dirt road it was slowly leaving behind. They were about to casually leave the scene of the crime when two things happened at once. The first was a ring of fire that surrounded the thieving pair, and the other was the sudden clanking halt of the wagon.

"Young man, what are you doing in the middle of the road?" The driver asked in a confused old voice as he poked his head out of his passenger window and looked at Squirtle who was suddenly standing in his way with a very angry look across his features.

Before the water pokemon could answer the old many, or even before Victoria could recognize who he was, her attention was grabbed by familiar gruff voice shouting, "Okay, Cyndaquil! Now Chikorita, use Razor Leaf!"

"Chiko!" the little green she-pokemon cried before slashing her little head decoration back and forth to release a bunch of smaller versions of the leaves straight at the witch being held captive. At their high speeds, the thieves had to think fast, and taking a quick defensive maneuver, Abra teleported out of harms way without his trainer. Victoria let out a very faint yelp and crouched to duck the leaves nicely, though the ring of fire around her rose tall enough to almost hide her behind its searing hot walls.

"Hey!" The old man shouted at he slowly began to realize what was going on. He jumped out of his van with the now growling Elekid jumping after him.

"Don't worry about this sir," Bulbasaur said in a calm voice as he emerged from the forest with his hands in his pockets. "Our trai- I mean, Ash has it under control."

"Well thank goodness for that," the old man sighed in relief. "I know he looks tough-" he nodded down at his Elekid. "But ol' Zappy can't really do much when it comes to battling."

"Ele…" The poor baby-pokemon moaned in shame.

When the bystanders looked back at the battle they discovered that Victoria had recomposed herself and called upon her trusty fighting Misdreavus. Squirtle let out a horrible growl and Bulbasaur looked at his partner out of the corner of his sincere red eyes. "Calm down boy," he murmured.

"Mis," the evil little ghost pokemon sang before releasing a ruthless psybeam onto Chikorita. Since her trainer hadn't ordered the attack verbally, the grass pokemon was not expecting it and it was full on critical hit.

"Cyndaquil, Flame wheel!"

Misdreavus countered the attack with a surprise Zapcannon. Ash almost fell over. "What?!"

"Misdreavus, finish it," Victoria hissed as she stood still, still trapped in the ring of fire that was starting to dissipate with Cyndaquil's strength. Misdreavus laid on the electricity and the poor fire pokemon wasn't able to hold on much longer. He was depressingly conquered and KO'd. Ash recalled is pokemon with remorse. "Chikorita, it's up to you!"

But just as he was saying it, Chikorita was blown away by another surprise Psybeam. Ash regrettably called back his second pained grass-pokemon. "Pikachu! THUNDER!"

Pikachu, operating as only Pikachu does, came jumping from who knows where and let loose a furious electric charge that even the mysterious ghost wasn't able to avoid. Just before it was overcome though, it was able to cut half of the electric mouse's energy away with an extra quick Psybeam. Victoria was shocked to see her pokemon faint, but she recalled it. Ash whooped, thinking he had won, until the ghost was replaced… With something just a few inches smaller.

Everyone gapped at the tiny weapon. "Na?" the little green bird chirped, hopping around, as it couldn't fly just yet.

"It's… Just a baby…" Ash murmured.

"Pika?" Pikachu questioned, eyeing the small opponent with confusion.

"Never underestimate me," Victoria mumbled.

"Na," the Natu chirped innocently. Then, without warning, Pikachu was knocked off his rocker by a rapid swift.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted, running to his buddy's side as the small mouse was bombarded with the never-ending stars. He, too, accidentally got caught up in the very accurate attack and just barely managed to wrap his small arms around his best friend before he was knocked off his feet and they both went crashing to the ground.

There was a screech just as the attack was coming to a close and a cracked voice shouted, "Whoa! Ash what the-?!"

"O-Officer Jenny!" The wounded trainer shouted. The blue haired uniformed beauty had arrived just in time with a sidecar full of squirtle, all wearing their signature round shades.

"Guys!" Squirtle called happily, running forward. He was intent on embracing his old squad, but suddenly he was attacked with his own direct hit. A rapid succession of fiery hot glares that shot right through his heart. He unconsciously looked down at his peachy wrinkled hands in despair. In this body, he wasn't the cool, loved leader of the Squirtle Squad. He was only a criminal with a funny blue hair-do.

Bulbasaur watched his friend as his emotions were visibly harmed. He slowly walked to him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Squirtle acknowledged his presence and slowly brought his face to look up into Bulbasaur's eyes. Unfortunately before the grass-pokemon could offer any words of advice, they were suddenly surrounded by the four angry squirtle. Everyone's attention was seemingly drawn away from Victoria as they noticed the wanted 'criminals' standing before them. It was a prime time for her to run, but Bulbasaur caught her attempted flight out of the corner of his eye. Thinking and moving quickly, the tall man leapt right over one of the Squirtle Squad members, made a swift dash to shorten the distance between himself and the witch, and then slid to a halt on the ground as a Vinewhip shot out from under his shirt and wrapped tightly around her leg. Victoria let out a faint yelp and did a face plant right into the dirt road.

Now, of course, everyone was staring wide-eyed at the scene as Bulbasaur struggled to stand up, his long vine still holding a tight grip onto Victoria's ankle. "What?!" was all Officer Jenny managed to spit out after a short second of hesitation.

"Officer Jenny, please listen!" Ash grunted as he struggled to his feet, holding the wounded Pikachu in his arms. "These two aren't criminals they're my friends! The real thief is that woman over there!"

"So who are these guys?!" the police officer demanded. "How are you doing that?" she asked Bulbasaur.

Squirtle took a deep breath and looked down his four confused turtle-like friends. He knelt down and brought their attention to his friendly face. "Hey guys. Sorry I had to lie to earlier, but it's me, Squirtle. Your leader. You know?"

The squirtle all blinked in confusion and then at each other with skeptical looks. Then they all looked at this stranger with blue hair, waiting for proof. Squirtle rolled his eyes and looked around nervously. "Oh, come on you don't believe me? I… I have blue hair.. Um.." All the sudden a lump in his jacket became oddly heavy and his eyes widened in his sudden stroke of genius. He didn't know why he had pocketed them in the first place, back when he had woken up at the police station to realize that he was a completely different species from when he had fallen asleep the night before. It was possible he had done it without thinking or maybe even out of habit, but for whatever reason, there in his pocket now sat a pair of very slick sunglasses that he had had for as long as he could remember. While his team's were all perfectly round shades, his stood out in the crowd, with pointed sides so that people would know he was that he was cool and in charge. And now he pulled them out, almost in slow motion. The polished tinted surface caught the sunlight just right and lit up the shaded eyes of the Squirtle Squad as they all came to the same conclusion. This was undoubtedly their leader, species aside.

With a new sense of confidence, Squirtle rose to his feet and put the shades on his nose. They fit nicely in an odd sort of way. A devious smirk spread across his face and for the first time in several days he felt like his old self again. "All right boys!" he shouted, getting his squad to line up neatly in front of him. Acting in the manner that he had always observed the trainers doing when in battle, he defiantly thrust out his right pointer finger and directed its focus on the little unscarred and waiting baby natu that hopped around obliviously on the ground. "Combined Watergun attack!"

In synchronized harmony, each Squirtle took in a deep breath and then let loose a giant wave the swept the poor psychic bird off its little claws. Of course, it wasn't just the four turtle-pokemon pitching in on the attack. Maybe it was purely out of habit again, but Squirtle had also taken a breath and somehow managed to release a gushing river of water that no human should have been able to conjure up without drying up. He was shocked, just like everyone around him, but he didn't stop shooting his watergun down at the poor bird until it was completely KO'd.

Everything seemed to be going right, and when the little Natu was finally fainted, the Squirtle Squad stopped their attack and laid back to admire their work, shake hands, and congratulate each other a job well done. Unfortunately, that kept them off their guard and there was one opponent still left on the field that everyone had seemingly just forgotten about.

Bulbasaur's gaze was locked on Victoria when it started to happen. She was obviously distressed, being held down by a Vinewhip of her own creation, seeing as her spell was at fault for Bulbasaur's mutated bulb that rested neatly in-between his human shoulder blades. But Bulbasaur knew that when her expression went from one to worry straight into one of triumph and evil greed, something was wrong.

Bulbasaur also knew from observation of battling her in the past, that Victoria and her abra had a strange telepathic connection. He quickly turned around just in time to see Abra slinking around behind Squirtle; his little yellow fist was glowing eerily.

"Maybe," Victoria began to murmur just so that Bulbasaur could hear it. "Maybe this spell will actually kill him instead of just turn him into a toad or something. I hope so, after all, we worked very hard on it."

Instinctively, Bulbasaur released Victoria from his hold and whipped around. "SQURITLE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "SQUIRTLE BEHIND YOU!"

Apparently Bulbasaur wasn't the only one to see the attack coming. From the sidelines, Zappy, the baby Elekid quickly got into a stance and began to charge his own counter attack.

Everything happened too quickly. Bulbasaur got to the attack just in time to tackle Squirtle out of the line of fire and just barely managed to dodge it himself. At the same time the freakish spell was launched, so was a Thunder Wave. But due to Zappy's lack of experience in battle, it failed to hit its target, and instead managed to become a critical hit right on the falling human-water-pokemon. They hit the ground with a thump and immediately the affects of the Elekid's attack started to settle in. Squirtle struggled to bring his face up to meet Bulbasaur's, who was right on top of him.

Bulbasaur's own expression fell upon seeing the hurt look of his friend. "Squirtle…" He started. But he never got to finish. He heard the faint humming of Abra charging up another one of his unnatural spells. His worried look set into a grim, dark expression full of wanting revenge. He slowly lifted himself off of Squirtle just enough to remove his damaged shirt. Squirtle's eyes widened a little behind his shades as the scarred cloth came tumbling down on his head. "Just stay here," Bulbasaur ordered in a low voice. "Don't strain too much. I promise on my life I'll protect you." And then he stood up all the way and faced Abra, flexing his human muscles threateningly.

_Bulbasaur…_ Squirtle's mind thought in wonderment, as he was unable to make the words come out of his frozen mouth at that moment. He felt like the paralysis had affected his brain as well, because that was about all he could think about anyway. _Bulbasaur… Bulbasaur…_

Bulbasaur got down on his hands and knees just as if he were in his regular dinosaur-like body again. He lifted his hind up just a bit so that the flat bulb between his bare shoulders was facing his opponent. But there would be no Vinewhip or Razor Leaf this time. Not even a Leech Seed. No, something much bigger was needed to protect the one that this grass-pokemon loved. And with that thought, Bulbasaur began to absorb sunlight.

As these two pokemon faced off, powering up for their attacks, no body else moved. Of course, Squirtle had no choice in the matter, but as if the paralysis was contagious, the rest of the on-lookers only did just that. Even Victoria stood meekly off to the side, though her expression was much less grave and fearful than the rest of those around her. Rather it was dark and proud, full of eerie confidence.

After a few moments, Bulbasaur began to sweat. It was tough focusing on two things at once. For one, he had to keep getting as much sunlight as he could for a powerful attack. On the other hand, he had to keep evaluating Abra, so that he could strike before the psychic pokemon was done charging.

Then it happened. Without warning, Abra threw his demented spell at Bulbasaur with a loud cry. Bulbasaur cursed under his breath and thinking fast, released his Solarbeam. It was a few seconds behind, so when the two attacks collided, it was closer to Bulbasaur than Abra. The human-pokemon was pushed back a few feet, but he dug his fingers and shoes into the hard dirt ground as hard as he could to keep from being thrown off balance. As Bulbasaur grimaced and pushed his attack as far as he could, Abra smirked in a creepy way, as did his trainer. They knew they had won. The puny species-confused mutant would give in and lose any moment.

They were both thrown for a loop when Bulbasaur cried out a loud battle cry and gave his Solarbeam his all. The late attack ripped through Abra's spell with newfound energy and sent the little psychic cat flying. Once the attack was through and both the spell and its caster were vanquished, Bulbasaur collapsed in the dirt and closed his eyes, panting heavily.

Immediately, Victoria tried to slink away but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her and she looked up into the aqua eyes of Officer Jenny. "Not so fast," the blue haired woman said, whipping out a pair of handcuffs.

"But… My abra…"

"Don't worry, we'll recover him soon. After all, you're both going to be tried for several accounts of theft and breaking and entering. Also illegal and unofficial battle attacks."

Victoria sighed and looked down at her feet. "How could I have not foreseen this coming?"

As this happened, everyone else's attention was drawn to Bulbasaur. Ash was the first to reach his poor pokemon, still cradling his KO'd Pikachu in his arms, and the old man and his Elekid, and the Squirtle Squad followed him. They all surrounded the poor exerted pokemon, calling out his name and trying to rouse him from his exhaust-induced slumber, but he didn't budge. Squirtle watched the scene from his defenseless state under him comrade's stolen shirt. Then, with determination and a lot of straining, he broke through the paralysis and slowly began to make his way over to Bulbasaur. The mourning group all fell silent as they felt the heavy presence of Squirtle, and his Squad even parted for him.

As soon as he was right beside Bulbasaur, Squirtle stopped fighting his condition and fell to his knees beside him, his sunglasses finally falling away from his face to rest in the dirt beside him. The water pokemon brought his head down to rest on Bulbasaur's and slowly the two crimson eyes cracked up to look up into the watery amber ones above him.

"Why?" Squirtle whispered as their pants became one. The surrounding group could barely hear the exchanged words. They all just watched in silent wonder, but Bulbasaur could hear Squirtle's voice loud and clear. "Why did you risk your life to protect me like that?"

"It's like I was going to say earlier…" Bulbasaur panted. With a strong will, he pushed through his pain and let a gentle smile cross his face so that in a near-inaudible whisper, he could say, "I love you, Squirtle."

Squirtle was silent for a moment, but then he too smiled. Unfortunately, before either one could say much more, Squirtle fell over next to him, and they both fell into a deep sleep.

***

A huge, painful crash filled the night right after a beautiful explosion that left fragments of colors lingering among the stars in the cloudless sky. The crash was then followed by Misty's disapproving voice. "Ash!" She practically screamed. "You can't just go around setting of fireworks whenever you darn well feel like it!!"

"Aw, come on, Misty!" the young trainer whined. "It's not like it's hurting anyone!"

"But it could you idiot!"

Squirtle laughed loudly as the scene unfolded before him. "God, those two are ridiculous," he hissed to one of his Squirtle Squad teammates beside him. The pokemon chuckled as well, mostly likely just in the habit of following the actions of his fearless leader. The he took a sip of the hot cocoa that was being passed around and Squirtle rolled his eyes. He adverted his attention back to the quarrelling trainers when something strangely random popped into his head.

_"Sometimes, things are a little more than what they seem on the outside." _Pikachu had said that once in reference to the two young trainers he was watching right now. The implication was that even though they fought all the time, Ash and Misty in fact cared deeply for each other. Maybe even loved each other? Squirtle didn't really know, nor did he even care that much. The thing that freaked him out was that when Pikachu had said it, it felt more like the electric mouse wasn't talking about _just_ Ash and Misty.

That had happened on Valentines Day. All the sudden Squirtle's left ring finger began to burn and he hastily took off his awesome black-leather biker glove to itch it. Of course, as soon as he did, the gleaming, unmarked silvery surface of a certain ring caught the moonlight. Squirtle's breath caught in throat and he couldn't tear his eyes away from the little accessory.

His head suddenly involuntarily lurched upward and scanned the crowd. Of course Officer Jenny wasn't there, she was busy filling out a police report about her recently captured criminal down at the station. But there was one other person missing from the party. "I'll be back," he muttered to his Squad before silently standing up and also leaving the small gathering to venture into the woods.

He found Bulbasaur a few minutes later, sitting underneath a tree and gazing up at the moon through a sea of branches. He was hesitant at first, and just watched his friend sit there with his crimson eyes set in deep thought as the silver light of the moon accented them beautifully. After taking a few seconds to appreciate the scene, Squirtle interrupted it by taking a seat next to Bulbasaur. At first, the human-grass-pokemon jumped and looked at his partner. Then once he was able to process this new development in his quiet meditation, he turned his lazy gaze back to the moon as if to ignore Squirtle.

"You're not much of a party guy are you?" Squirtle asked after a few moments of silence.

"You've asked that before," Bulbasaur pointed out. "On other nights like this one."

"Well yeah, but… Well at least it's something other than just sitting here in awkward silence."

Bulbasaur smirked and looked at the blue-haired man out of the corner of his eyes. "I guess you're right." Then things were silent again and his smirk vanished completely, a dark aura suddenly surrounding Bulbasaur. "Except this has never been awkward before…"

Squirtle took a minute to process that and slowly lifted his gaze to gap at his companion. "No… It hasn't… But there's not much we can do about that, is there?"

It took a lot of courage and strength for Bulbasaur to say what he needed to next. "Maybe you were right… When you said that we should just… Go back to being how we used to…" He lifted his fake-smiling downcast eyes to meet with Squirtle's, and then mirroring Squirtle's frantic pleas for earlier that day, he said murmured "Can't we just forget any of this happened?"

For a while, Squirtle didn't say anything and it seemed like he was just going to silently agree with his partner. Bulbasaur sighed and was about to stand up so he could go somewhere else to focus on turning back into a pokemon when Squirtle's words tied him still.

"No. Actually, I don't think we can go on and forget anything, Bulbasaur," the water-pokemon said quietly. He raised his gentle, smiling face to look into the grass-pokemon's bewildered one. "I'm sorry, but no matter what you say, I can't put all this behind me and forget it ever happened. I don't think I can let it go back to the way we used to be."

Bulbasaur was speechless. "Squirtle, does this mean you…" He was silenced by a swift, stolen kiss. It was light and tender, just barely even making contact. Even still, it made both boys blush profusely and when Squirtle pulled away he could barely keep his eyes on Bulbasaur.

"Um… I thought I'd try it out myself… Just to see what it was like I guess. I mean you did surprise me the first time and I didn't really get to think about it much…" he murmured, embarrassment consuming his entire being.

Bulbasaur was still. In contrast to Squirtle's drifting eyes, he couldn't tear his away from the blue-haired man. "And…?"

"…It wasn't _that_ bad, I guess…"

"Wasn't that bad, eh?" Bulbasaur quoted, a smirk covering his genuinely delighted features. "So would it bother you so much if I did this?" He lifted Squirtle's chin up and swept him into a deeper, more meaningful kiss this time. This time, it lasted longer too and Squirtle found himself moving into it, wrapping his arms around Bulbasaur's neck for a better hold. When they pulled apart this time, they were both almost out of breath, their hearts beating frantically, but in unison. Squirtle was practically straddling Bulbasaur in his lap and they looked at each other intensely.

"Well… No I guess it wouldn't…" Squirtle answered quietly. "Actually, that one was… Really nice…" Not able to meet the crimson eyes now under the extreme weight of embarrassment, Squirtle leaned forward and rested his head on Bulbasaur's shoulder, trying to regain his composure.

Bulbasaur smiled blissfully and wrapped his strong arms around Squirtle's thin back, pulling them even closer together. "I love you, Squirtle."  
"…Me too, Bulbasaur… I love you too… And now I know for certain that I do."

As they sat huddled together in solitude under the dark branches of the forest, the silver moonlight caught a hold of and kept a tight grip on the visible affection that was given off by the silver rings both pokemon wore around their fingers.

End.

A/N: Um, well, that's that, I guess. ^^; It's kind of a crappy ending, I know... But this isn't really the ending you see. I wrote a lemony-alternate ending that I'm fighting with myself on whether or not I should actually upload it because, frankly, I suck at lemon. XD I've only ever written 3 in my entire life and they all failed at life. Miserbly. Mostly because I lack expirience I guess? And I'm like.. the shyest person ever... Anyway... If you really desperately want it, or I decide to re-read it and find it suitable enough, I'll probably add it on. Until then, do with this. X3 AND JUMP ONTO BULBASQUIRT! I promise it'll be worth your time~~!!! We have yummy cookies!!

3 Lieano


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